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

specifying that the United States had to “act with punctuality or energie” to
secure the huge profits of American Mediterranean trade, avoiding “the Shoals
that is under the Lee of the good ship the CONGRESS.” 12
O’Brien’s opinion was neither heeled by his government nor shared by
other consuls in the region, particularly William Eaton who was appointed
consul to Tunis. Eaton was a colonel in the U.S. Army who had neither
experience nor knowledge about the North African regencies but his ‘forceful
pacification’ of the “exceedingly troublesome” Creeks and Cherokees on the
frontiers of Georgia were considered by his government ample qualifications
for sending him to the ‘Coast of Barbary.’ 13 Before he sailed from America, a
government official told him that the Barbary consuls were a “set of d-d savage
agents—Indian agents—yes, a set of d-d Indian agents you Barbary consuls!”
Eaton acquiesced probably because that was the way he perceived himself. 14
With that background, Eaton interpreted his mission to ‘Barbary’ as an
opportunity to “pave the way for a great expansion of American trade on the
coasts of Barbary” 15 in much the same way as he contributed paving the way
for American westward expansionism on native Americans’ lands. As a matter
of fact, once on the ‘Coast of Barbary’, he interpreted his new role to
perfection: when an Algerian official, who was the consul of Algiers to Tunis,
12 NDBW, 1:288-9, O’Brien to David Humphreys, December 27-30, 1798. O’Brien specified that the
peace treaties with Algiers and the other regencies, Tunis and Tripoli, brought $1.5 million in annual
profits to American merchants.
13 Charles Prentiss, The Life of the Late Gen. William Eaton; Several Years an Officer in the United
States’ Army, Consul at the Regency of Tunis on the Coast of Barbary… Principally Collected from his
Correspondence and other Manuscripts (Brookfield, Mass: E. Merriam & Co., 1813), pp. 20-2; Wright
and Macleod, First Americans, pp. 17-8; also London, Victory in Tripoli, pp. 61-66.
14 As cited in Allison, The Crescent Obscured, p. 163.
15 Kitzen, Tripoli and the United States, p. 26.
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