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

drafted in 1779 by Thomas Jefferson but since, it had been rejected by the
Virginia legislature on many occasions. But the irony of history had made it in
such a way that the ‘despicable’ and ‘tyrannical’ Dey of Algiers would
contribute, even though indirectly, to its adoption and subsequently, to the
establishment of religious freedom in the United States because that Virginia
statute was at the origin of the first article of the American constitution of
1787.
Elsewhere in the United States, the rumor spread and took wider
proportions. Newspapers depicted the three strangers as ‘advance scouts’ of a
dangerous enemy; subsequently, panic took hold of the whole country as they
were reported to have been spotted in different states and even aggressing
inhabitants. 64
So deep was the concern that a Virginia member of the
Legislature wrote Jefferson: “the inhabitants of these states are greatly alarmed
at the hostility of the Algerines.” 65
A Frenchman warned that even if the
Algerians would not threaten the American coast “some ill-designed Brittons,
Irish, Jersey, or Guernsey men, under the cloak of a Barbarian, with an
Algerine commission,” might do it. 66 He even suggested that he be sent to
France to buy a frigate to defend Virginia from the imminent Algerian attack!
More, in 1786, newspapers reports spread sensational news about no less than
nine more captures of American ships which caused the French Chargé
Official and Private, edited by Andrew A. Lipscomb and others, 20 Vol. (Washington, D. C.: The
Thomas Jefferson Memorial Association, 1894, 1903), 1:xii. (Hereafter cited as WTJ2).
64 At Charleston, SC, it was reported that one of the two men “draw a dirk” and attempted to stab a
Charlestonian who questioned him. For newspapers’ reports see Peskin, “Lessons of Independence,” p.
300.
65 PTJ, 9:75-6, From John Bannister, December 2, 1785.
66 As cited in Allison, The Crescent Obscured, p. 4.
263