CHAPTER XIX FOREIGN AFFAIRS ASIDE from the establishment of Republican control, the main interest in Jefferson's administration centres in foreign affairs. During these years there was important international contact with France, England, Spain, and the Barbary States. It seems almost incredible at the present time that the insignificant States of northern Africa should have been able for so many years to plunder the commerce of the world with impunity. It is not to the credit of the United States and the European powers that they purchased immunity from these pirates by the payment of tribute; yet they exacted such tribute with great regularity from the powerful nations of Europe, who found it more convenient, and perhaps cheaper, to pay blackmail than to administer the punishment so richly deserved. The United States followed the example of the nations of Europe, and in 1787 purchased immunity from Morocco, and later from Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli. The character of the dealings between the United States and the Barbary States is well illustrated by the instructions given to Mr. Barclay, agent to Algiers in 1792. These instructions seem to have taken it for granted that an annual tribute would be given in return "The only question then is," the instructions for peace. for peace. money will we agree to pay them annually You will, of course, use your best endeavors to get it at the lowest sum practicable; whereupon I shall only say, that we should be pleased with $10,000, contented with $15,000, think $20,000 a very hard bargain; yet go as far as $25,000, if it be impossible to get it for less; but not a copper further, this being fixed by law as the utmost limit. These are meant as annual sums. If you can put off the first annual payment to the end of the first year, you may employ any sum not exceeding that in presents, to be paid down; but if the first payment is to be made in hand, that and the presents cannot by law exceed 25,000 dollars." It was also the custom of the Barbary pirates, in addition to preying upon commerce, to seize foreigners and hold them for ransom. Upon this subject Mr. Barclay's instructions proceed as follows: "It has been a fixed principle with Congress to establish the rate of ransom of American captives with the Barbary states, at as low a point as possible, that it may not be the interest of these States to go in quest of our citizens in preference to those of other countries. Had it not been for the danger it would have brought on the residue of our seamen, by exciting the cupidity of these rovers against them, our citizens now in Algiers would have been long ago redeemed, without regard to price. The mere money for this particular redemption neither has been, nor is, an object with anybody here. It is from the same regard to the safety of our seamen at large, that they have now restrained us from any ransom unaccompanied with peace; this being secured, we are led to consent to terms of ransom to which, otherwise, our government would never have consented. . . . You will consider this sum, therefore, say $27,000, as your ultimate limit, including ransom, duties, and gratifications of every kind." This same policy was continued, under protest, down to the time of Jefferson. In a letter to Wilson Cary Nicholas, written June 11, 1801, the President says: "You will have seen an alarm in the newspapers on the subject of the Tripolitans and Algerians. The former about May, a twelve-month, demanded a sum of money for keeping the peace, pretending that the sum paid as the price of the treaty was only for making peace. With respect This you know has to Algiers, they are in extreme ill humour. We find three years arrears of tribute due to them. not proceeded from any want of the Treasury. Our tribute to them is nominally 20,000 D. to be delivered in stores, but so stated that they cost us 80,000 D. A negotiation had been set on foot by our predecessors to commute the stores for 30,000 D. cash. It would be an excellent bargain, but we know nothing of the result. We have, however, sent them 30,000 D. by our frigates as one year's tribute, and have a vessel ready to sail with the stores for another year. We have taken these steps towards supplying the deficiencies of our predecessors merely in obedience to the law; being convinced it is money thrown away, and that there is no end to the demand of these powers, nor any security in their promises." About two years later, March 22, 1803, a letter from Jefferson to Madison discloses a similarly humiliating state of affairs. "I think,” writes the President, "the greatest dispatch should be used in sending either the gun carriages or money to Simpson for the Emperor of Morocco, and the stores to Algiers; We must keep these two powers friendly by a steady course of justice oiled occasionally with liberality." It was plain that this iniquitous state of affairs could not continue. The payment of tribute was only a temporary sedative, and when one State was placated another presented its demands. The United States, however, was not in a good condition to substitute force for tribute. The Act of March 3, 1801, authorized the president to sell all the vessels of the navy with the exception of thirteen frigates, and of these only six were to be left in commission. The number of naval officers was also greatly reduced. It was soon seen, however, that the depredations of the Barbary States and of the European powers would necessitate the strengthening of the navy. This work was taken up in 1803. The policy was a favorite one with John Adams and the Federalists, but its adoption by the Republicans should occasion no surprise, as the two parties were now exchanging policies at a bewildering rate. In 1803 the United States navy moved against Tripoli with some energy, and in 1805 Commodore Preble compelled that power to cease its depredations and make a treaty. This exhibition of activity came as a surprise to all the north African States and had an excellent moral effect upon them. For several years our commerce was unmolested, and Europe soon after abandoned the system of paying blackmail. The Barbary War also reacted favorably upon the American navy. It gave an added prestige to that department of the service and furnished a practical training which was of value in the War of 1812. The greatest danger to American commerce, however, lay not in the depredations of the comparatively feeble African States, but in the assaults of the two most powerful nations of Europe,-France and Great Britain. Napoleon approved the treaty for the cession of Louisiana on the 22d of May, 1803, and on the following day the European war began anew. The Peace of Amiens was at an end and France and Great Britain were preparing for war. This was a serious matter for the United States. All the prominent nations of Europe were involved in the war, either on one side or the other, and as a result of this the United States became the most important neutral carrying power. Depredations upon neutral commerce were soon to follow the outbreak of hostilities, and the United States was destined to be the principal sufferer. France and Great Britain bore no particular enmity toward the United States, but neither would hesitate to make aggressions on our commerce in case the other could be injured thereby. For this reason the resumption of hostilities in Europe was looked upon with grave concern in the United States. Jefferson assumed a neutral attitude. He was no longer the French partisan of the early revolutionary days. In fact, he had recently |