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

“union of force” open to European nations to keep a constant cruise against
“the depredations of the Algerines.” 150 By July 1786, Jefferson had already
finalized his plan as “Proposals for concerted operation among the powers at
war with the piratical States of Barbary” and submitted it to Congress for
approval. 151
In his autobiography, Jefferson returned back on that scheme, so dear to
him, and discussed the circumstances which brought it about. 152 At Paris, he
related, his duties were confined to few things: “receipt of our whale-oils,
salted fish, and salted meats, were the principal commercial objects which
required attention.” So, while performing the role of a commercial agent,
Jefferson considered that American Mediterranean commerce was threatened
by the Muslim corsairs but saw that he was “very unwilling” to accept
Mediterranean policies and the practice or what he called “European
humiliation, of paying a tribute to those lawless pirates.” Consequently, he
engaged on a war footing by the preparation of “articles of a special
confederation” of eleven points comprising the following points:
• Concerted operations among the European powers against the piratical
States “beginning with the Algerines” to compel them “to perpetual
peace, without price;”
• The operations should consist of “constant cruizes on their coast, with a
naval force …[of] half a dozen frigates”; that force should be furnished
by the parties” according to predetermined quotas;
150 Jefferson, Memoir, 1:370, To John Adams, November 27, 1785.
151 The full text of the plan appears in Appendix 6.
152 Jefferson, Memoir, 1:52-5.
290