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

dragged on for a long time before they were initiated partly because of the
problem of funding and partly because of delays in arrival of the negotiating
agent. Worst, to conduct that delicate mission Congress chose John Lamb, a
Connecticut mule trader with no diplomatic experience. 130
Despite all, negotiations started in 1786. After an agreement over
prisoners and delays of execution was reached with the Dey, Lamb left Algiers
and soon after that he was recalled. Meanwhile at New York, the congressional
committee that was appointed to consider the proposal of peace with Algiers
was reporting; one of its members said that they “ought to send a Sufficient
Sum and a person of Talents & Integrity to Negociate a Treaty---; that Mr.
Lamb the person now there is not a Sober Man but of a Loose Caractor [sic]
unfit for that purpose,” and that he was “surprized Congress appointed Such a
person &c.” 131 Too late! Lamb had already left Algiers and negotiations were
drawn. After that short contact the Americans disappeared for nine years
without any official notification before renewing contacts in the mid-1790s. So,
by opting for incompetence and contempt, they caused the treaty with Algiers
not to be concluded until 1795.
Finally, and contrary to Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli were seen as lesser
Barbary powers that were not even worth negotiating with; so, the United
States did not even bother entering into negotiations with them. 132
The
130 Robert J. Allison, The Crescent Obscured: The United States and the Muslim World: 1776-1815
(London/New York: Oxford University Press, 1995), p. 7; Peskin, “Lessons of Independence,” p. 304.
131 LDC, 23:256, Thomas Rodney’s Diary, May 2, 1786.
132 After a meeting with the Tripolitan ambassador in London in 1786, Adams reported to Jay: “Feeling
his appearance here to be ominous like that of other irregular bodies, which, “from their horrid hair,
shake pestilence and war,” I thought at first to avoid him … It would scarcely be reconcileable [sic] to
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