Ottoman Algeria in Western Diplomatic History with ... - Bibliothèque

Algiers particularly as a “pettifogging nest of robbers;” 94 John Adams called
Muslim rulers “unfeeling tyrants;” 95 and James Madison described them as
“petty tyrants” in his campaign literature and their system as “capricious
despotism.” 96 For them, the ‘despotic’ Muslim became the antithesis of that
early American republican identity. 97 For the Muslims rulers, however, what
the Americans regarded as piracy and despotism was no more than self-defense
generated by a long history of conflicts between Islam and Christianity,
conflicts which had roots in the Crusades, Reconquista, and expulsion of the
Moriscos. 98 This view was also conveyed by James L. Cathcart, a many years
American captive at Algiers and later American consul for Tripoli, from a
discussion with Ibram Rais, an Algerian corsair who was cruelly treated while
he was in captivity in Malta where he remained prisoner for fourteen years:
but you are Christians and if you have not injured Mussulmen it was not
for the want of will, but for want of power, if you should chance to take
any of our Cruisers how would you treat our people? 99
No forecast could be more accurate than that of Ibram Rais.
3. American Post-independence Relations with Algiers
After 1776, commerce continued to be the main motivation for
American much sought presence in the Mediterranean but the new condition of
94 USDC, 2:183, From Thomas Jefferson to John Jay, August 11, 1788; also PTJ, 7: 640, To James
Monroe, 6 Feb. 1785.
95 WJA, 8:218.
96 Lambert, Barbary Wars, pp. 110, 123 and WJM, 8:227, Fourth Annual Message, November 4, 1812
respectively.
97 Lee, “The Fallacy of Grievance-based Terrorism,” p. 73.
98 Rojas, “Insults Unpunished,” pp. 173-74.
99 Cathcart, The Captives, p. 49.
190