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

did they coast, from where were they bought etc ...). The Secret Journals’
correspondence is rich in the matter. For example, Adams wrote to the
Secretary for Foreign Affairs that the Netherlands, a smaller power which the
American ministers were projecting to imitate for payment, “paid annually to
the regency of Algiers a hundred thousand dollars” and added “I hope a less
sum would serve for us; but in the present state of our finances it would be
difficult to make payment.” 116
The first report the three ministers made to
Congress indicated that expenses of treaties, presents and annual tribute are
necessary for negotiations and informed that they “cannot proceed at all till the
money necessary is actually ready at our command.” 117
Even so, it was not until early 1785 that Congress authorized the
ministers to spent a sum “not exceeding eighty thousand dollars” on all treaties
with the Barbary States, including tributes and presents. 118
That allotted sum
which, if not suggestive of the meanness of the American mind, is clearly
indicative of the avidity and cupidity of the American character. 119
The
decision of Congress implies that the Americans wanted to conclude treaties
for a symbolic price in total disregard for the prevailing pricing. By way of
comparison, for Algiers alone at about the same time, the renewed treaty with
France (1788) cost $100,000 in annual tribute in addition to presents made
116 USRDC, 6:537, J. Adams to Livingston, July 12, 1783; also, USDC, 1:475, From John Adams to
John Jay, March 9, 1785.
117 USDC, 1:357, First Report of the Commissioners to Congress, November 11, 1784.
118 SJ, 3:528-29, February 14, 1785.
119 More than two hundred years later, American meanness has persisted and animosity has exceeded
tributes and presents to compliment and courtesy. Thus, commenting the respect Dey Muhammed
Pasha expressed for George Washington in 1786, one of the contemporary heinous crusaders writes:
“Instead, he [Lamb] received a list of additional ransom demands [emphasis added], which included a
portrait of General Washington, whom the dey [sic] professed to admire.” Oren, Power, Faith, and
Fantasy, p. 25.
239