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

and to Jefferson he wrote that it “has some curious features.” 85 It is however
known from a letter of Randolph to Humphreys that President Washington
gave instructions for redeeming the captives at a “limit of three thousand
dollars per man”—we are here far away from Jefferson’s $100-200 apiece
offered in 1786—but this appears nowhere in the treaty. 86
The customary
presents were not included either, they were counted as regalian rights, or
privileges attached to office, and were one of two points the Dey insisted on—
besides naval material. Those included a presents valued at $20,000 on the
sending of a new consul and biennial presents to officers of government
estimated at $17,000. 87 For insignificant annuities in naval stores, presents on
arrival of a new ambassador, and biennial presents Algiers opened its markets
and guaranteed the interests of an American Mediterranean trade that,
according to O’Brien, was making profits of $1.5 million a year. 88 Overall, the
document was most favorable for the United States; one may even affirm that it
was a one-sided treaty. Apart from the above mentioned payments that were
not even written in the treaty and which later became a matter of controversy
and cheating, Algiers had all to lose by the terms of treaty.
A quick look at the provisions of the treaty shows that nineteen out of
the twenty-two articles did not provide for reciprocity: 89 except from articles 3,
4 and 19 which provided for immunity from capture on presentation of a
85 LWJM, 2:82, To James Monroe, Feby 26, 1796 and ibid, 2:85, To Thomas Jefferson, Feb. 29, 1796
respectively.
86 ASP/FA, 1:529, Secretary of State to Colonel Humphreys, August 25, 1794.
87 Bassett, Principles of American Diplomacy, p. 108; ASP/FA, 3:33.
88 As cited in Allison, The Crescent Obscured, p. 160.
89 These remarks are based on the original translation of 1795. Wherever flagrant disparities appear
between the original translation and that of 1830, parentheses are used for the purpose.
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