The party which had supported his father had become divided and defeated.

Mr.
Jefferson, elevated to the Presidency after a heated and angry contest, was an object of the dislike and suspicion of the Federalists, The conflicts of the belligerent nations in Europe, and the measures of foreign policy they severally adopted, not only affected the interests of the United States, but were added elements to inflame the party contests at home.
In 1804, Bonaparte stepped from the Consul chamber to the throne of the French Empire.

All Europe was bending to his giant rule.

Great Britain alone, with characteristic and inherent stubbornness, had set itself as a rock against his ambitious aspirations, and prosecuted with unabated vigor its determined hostility to all his measures of trade and of conquest.

In November, 1807, the British Government issued the celebrated "Orders in Council," forbidding all trade with France and her allies.