At the time of war, Arthur Empey felt enraged by the sinking of the Lusitania and, the loss of American passengers, he expected to join the American army to combat the Germans. When America did not declare war immediately Empey decided to board a ship to England where he was enlisted in the British army. This was a violation of the neutrality law though no one seemed to care, and soon he was manning a trench on the front lines. He was made a member of a machine gun crew and sat in the British trench peering towards the German lines.
President Jefferson had doubts because he was unsure if the purchase of land without the agreement of the legislative branch was constitutional
