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

our commerce.” 103
Finally, and contrary to Franklin who believed that
American Mediterranean trade was not sufficiently important to be worth
purchasing by treaties and tributes, 104 Adams argued that the Americans “have,
or shall have, a rich trade at sea exposed to their depredations.” So, according
to him, the situation “rendered it necessary that something should be soon
done” against “such enemies of the human race.” 105
Based on the views which prevailed at that time among Americans,
Adams considered two options: an American unilateral action and a European
joint action. For the first option he contemplated the use of privateers to capture
Algerian mariners, which in itself was not out of context—after all it was an
age of privateering and corsairing. 106 One should note, however, that at the time
when Adams was proposing capture, i.e.: December 1784, no American ships
were seized by the Algerian corsairs up to then. But because he believed that
the American race and its attributes were superior to those of ‘Barbary,’ he
quickly discarded it arguing that:
If we take a vessel of theirs, we get nothing but a bad vessel, fit only to
burn, and a few guns and a few barbarians, whom we may hang or
enslave if we will; and the unfeeling tyrants whose subjects they are will
think no more of it than if we had killed so many caterpillars upon an
apple tree. 107
103 WJA, 8:217-19, From John Adams to John Jay, December 15, 1784. The Americans were
hypersensitive about insurance; since their vessels were insured by banking houses in London, they
kept accusing the British of spreading rumors about captures to raise insurance rates. See for example
PTJ, 8:559, 585-87; 9:615-622.
104 USRDC, 6:587, Franklin to the President of Congress, December 25 th , 1783.
105 WJA, 8:217-19, From John Adams to John Jay, December 15, 1784.
106 This idea Adams shared with Jefferson but the latter was more virulent: he suggested ‘hijacking’
Ottoman vessels, ‘kidnapping’ Muslim passengers and crew, and selling the captives on the slavemarket
of Christian Malta. Joseph Wheelan, Jefferson’s War: America’s First War on Terror, 1801–
1805 (New York: Carroll & Graf, 2003), pp. 59, 109; also ASP/FA, 1:101, Report of the Secretary of
State in relation to American prisoners at Algiers, December 30, 1790.
107 WJA, 8:218, From John Adams to John Jay, December 15, 1784.
275