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

At all events, American correspondence of the epoch, while infuriated
by news of capture, systematically accused the British, and particularly Logie,
for the disaster of captures; Portuguese officials were also suspected. The
American consul at Lisbon was first to pinpoint to the British:
The conduct of the British in this business leaves no room to doubt or
mistake their object, which was evidently aimed at us, and proves that
their envy, jealousy, and hatred will never be appeased, and that they
will leave nothing unattempted to effect our ruin. 38
And O’Brien wrote President George Washington:
The British nation, the natural and inveterate enemies of the United
States, has brought about this truce, or half peace, for Portugal, in order
to alarm our commerce and prevent the United States from supplying
the French in their present glorious contest for liberty. 39
The Portuguese government denied having any knowledge about Logie’s deal
and accepted an American request for conveying American ships. 40 The escort,
however, was contrary to a provision in the truce which stipulated that Portugal
would not extent the benefits of passports to other nations not having a treaty
with Algiers and was a source of anger for the Dey who made the British
responsible for that. For the role of the British government in the truce, the
issue was more complex. Thomas Pinckney, American minister at London, had
a conversation with Lord Grenville, British Secretary of State for Foreign
38 ASP/FA, 1:296, Edward Church, Consul of the United States at Lisbon, to the Secretary of State, Oct.
12, 1793. In this letter, church also accused some Portuguese leading officials: “It is a matter of
certainty which I have received from undoubted authority, though contradicted by the minister Luis
Pinto, and at present a great secret, that one of the present Portuguese ministers is in this execrable
plot.”
39 Ibid., 1:418, O’Brien to President, November 5, 1793.
40 Ibid., 1:299, Translation of a Note from Luis Pinto de Sousa, Secretary of Foreign Affairs at Lisbon,
to Edward Church, Consul for the United States, October 22, 1793.
307