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America, Russia, Hemy, and Napoleonhomes. The boat replaced the sleigh for river travel, and crisiswas free from its cage of ice. 21American merchants ordering their ships to Russia or anywhereelse in Europe in the spring of 181 o were either deludedor desperate. N o one could predict what sort of dangers Americansin European waters would have to face. Even the LondonHouse of Baring, which profited from American trade inEurope, confided to a Baltimore client, 'W e perfectly agreewith you that in the present situation of American commerce,all that prudent me n have to do is to remain quiet and wait forbetter times." 22 There was, of course, the gauntlet of the Danesto run. There was the possibility that the British, in retaliationagainst the exclusion of the Union Jack from the ports of theBaltic, would turn back all ships bound for those ports. 23 Andthere existed the chilling possibility that an American merchantvessel on the way to or from Russia would find that theDanes were the least of her dangers. At any moment news ofyet another cavalier outrage against America's neutral rightsmight precipitate the United States into war against eitherFrance or Britain, which would put American ships in Europeanwaters in extreme jeopardy. Tempers in the UnitedStates were hot enough for war. Benjamin Rush, the usuallycool-headed successor to Franklin as intellectual leader of Philadelphia,wrote to John Quincy Adams on 4 July 1810 describingNapoleon as the "great hamme r of the earth" andGeorge III as the "great hamme r of the ocean." "I considerthem both," he added, "as the scourge of the human race." 24All the dictates of self-preservation and manhood demandedthat Americans not permit themselves to be bludgeoned bythese two hammers without making some defense, but what160