Toward the embargo, as toward many other issues, the
Middle States assumed a median attitude. The line between
approval and opposition was not fast drawn. Lying at the
heart of the older Union, the Middle States had sympathies
common to both their northern and their southern neigh-
bors, as well as interests peculiarly their own. Thus their
mercantile marine was a link with New England, while their
staple crops were a bond with the South. At the same time,
manufacturers already possessed a foothold which made the
Middle States the natural beneficiary of the stimulus which
the embargo itself was to bring.

In respect to a marine and to staple crops, New York
was typical of the section. To the extent of her great ship-
ping interest, her sympathies lay naturally with New Eng-
land. On her long Canadian boundary, moreover, the natural
temptations to smuggling were multiplied by British in-
ducements to evade the embargo. In addition, she was loath
as any southern state to pile up successive crops against a
market day which might never come. But these discourage-
ments were compensated by the advantage, first, of rescuing
her shipping, and then, of harvesting such gains as growing
manufactures might offer. A strong party machine exercised
a steadying influence, and DeWitt Clinton, Republican boss
of the State of New York, though not a devotee of the Vir-
ginia dynasty, was not the man to split his party by an open
break with the national leaders.

Economic distress was, however, immediate. Early in
January, Moss Kent wrote to his famous brother, Chancellor
Kent, from Champion in the western part of the state, that:

-197-