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of 1812JHE N TH E NEW S of the declaration of war against GreatBritain reached Ne w York and Boston and the other ports ofthe northeast, the merchants raised a wail of protest. Theirview was the same as that of John Quincy Adams, half a worldaway. "The only object for which we could engage in a war/'he had written in May , "would be commerce, and from themoment war would take place our commerce would be annihilated."x And how dare Madison start his war in the middle ofthe North European shipping season, whe n scores of Americanships lay directly beneath the guns of Saumarez's fleet?Take, for instance, the case of the "Golden Age" and CaptainFairfield, whose misadventures w e followed in the lastchapter. After the cargo of fish was confiscated from the"Golden Age" at Naples, Fairfield loaded her with a cargo ofwine, obtained her release, and headed back for England.Wine , again, proved a drug on the English market; and afterseveral frustrating months at Plymouth, Fairfield decided totry elsewhere. O n 3 July, two weeks after America's declarationof war but still several weeks before the news reached246