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

every ten years according to custom, that with Spain (1786) was said to have
cost from three to five millions dollars, England was paying an annual tribute
of about $280,000, and the lesser powers were paying from $24,000 to $36,000
in annual tribute. 120 In 1786, one year later, the funds were not only not made
available for negotiations but the commissioners also judged them to “be not
sufficient” which would augment “the difficulty of making peace,” as Adams
pointed out. 121 More, an October 13, 1785 report from the Secretary for Foreign
Affairs entitled “A proposed peace with the Algerines & the Barbary States”
was referred to a Congressional committee consisting of six members on
March 29, 1786. The committee’s report stated that “the sum appropriated to
the purchasing peace with those States was insufficient [and] Contemptable
[sic].” 122
On the eve of negotiation, and as funding was still lacking, Jefferson and
Adams wrote a joint letter to the new Secretary for Foreign Affairs John Jay
inquiring “if Congress should authorize us to go to the necessary expense.” 123
Jay’s answer was unequivocally negative. As a justification he argued that
because of the “the reluctance of the States to pay taxes, or to comply with the
economical requisitions of Congress, or to give efficacy to their Federal
Government,” and because “the people or generality will never provide for the
120 American State Papers, Class I: Documents, Legislative and Executive, of the Congress of the
United States: Foreign Relations, 1789-1828, edited by Lowrie and Clarke (Washington, D. C.: Gales
and Seaton, 1832-1861), 1:105, Report of Secretary of State Relative to Mediterranean Trade,
December 30, 1790. The cost of the treaty with France could not be known. (Hereafter cited as
ASP/FA). Available at http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/amlaw/lwdg.html
121 USDC, 2:566, From John Adams to John Jay, February 16, 1786.
122 LDC, 23:256, Thomas Rodney’s Diary, May 2, 1786.
123 USDC, 2:566, From the Commissioners to John Jay, March 28, 1786.
240