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

further French intervention on their behalf, they wrote Charles Gravier Count
de Vergennes (1719-1787), the French Foreign Minister, an incomprehensible
letter in which they invoked Article VII of the above mentioned treaty and
referred to some American ships blocked in Italy because of supposed fears of
Algerian corsairs and invoking some Italian merchants who were “desirous of
entering into the American trade” but “apprehension of danger from the
corsairs of Barbary is a discouragement.” 48
Unable to take a decision on such a strange request, Vergennes referred
the letter to Count de Sartine, Minister of the Marine who in turn could not
understand what the Commissioners were maneuvering at. According to de
Sartine, under the eighth article of the treaty, the King “promised to employ his
mediation” with Algiers and France would “comply with it, notwithstanding
any difficulties which seem to lie in the way.” 49 But beyond that personal
engagement of the King, France would not go as far as to expose its “own
interests for those of the United States.” 50 For de Sartine, the Commissioners
had to clarify what they wanted exactly: a treaty with Algiers or French
influence to force Algiers to acknowledge the American flag? If a treaty,
France would use the “good offices of the king” to mediate one even though
negotiations “will be long and arduous” and results “illusive”; if protection of
the flag, in other terms, the use of military force to convoy American shipping
in the Mediterranean, France would never succeed because “the Algerines, in
48 DCAR, 1:315, Commissioners to Count de Vergennes, August 28, 1778.
49 Ibid., 1:330-32, M. de Sartine to Count de Vergennes, September 21, 1778.
50 Ibid., 1:331.
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