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

April 3, the Dey announced that, as agreed on, after one week, the American
emissaries had to leave the country and within one month from then, if the
stipulated sums were not paid the treaty should be terminated. 109 But after long
negotiations, via Bacri who was promised a commission of $18,000, a
compromise was reached: the USA was to provide Algiers with a 36 gunsfrigate
as compensation for an extra three months’ delay. 110 The day after the
frigate agreement was made Donaldson sailed to Livorno where after long and
complex financial deals with a branch of the Baring financial house of London
and the Jew financial houses, which were not without difficulties, he could
obtain the value of $100,000 in gold. 111 Eventually, he could arrange for the
shipment of the bullions which reached Algiers in January 1797. 112
That
permitted too the payment of the $20,000 which he borrowed from Bacri for
the presents he distributed at the signature of the treaty. Meanwhile at Algiers,
other developments occurred.
The agreement for the frigate was confirmed by the American president
and appropriations ($45,000) voted by the House of Representatives; yet, there
was much opposition to the agreement and reluctance to build the frigate that
Washington wrote the Secretary of War urging compliance:
109 ASP/FA, 1:554, Joel Barlow and Joseph Donaldson, Jun. to David Humphreys , Esq., American
Minister, Lisbon, April 5 th , 1796.
110 ASP/FA, 1:554, Joel Barlow and Joseph Donaldson, Jun. to David Humphreys , Esq., American
Minister, Lisbon, April 5 th , 1796. The emissaries estimated the frigate at 45,000 and explained also that
“this way a saving may be made of about 10,000 dollars.” But barely 9 months later, the Secretary of
State in his report put the price at $99,727 (more than the double).
111 His presence coincided with the invasion of Livorno by Napoleon and blockade of the city by the
British; so he could not get out the bullions easily. For a full report about financial transactions see
ASP/FA, 1:556-58, Statement of Messrs. Baring and Co., August 29, 1796.
112 For details about the Livorno transactions see Joshua E. London, Victory in Tripoli: How America’s
War with the Barbary Pirates Established the U.S. Navy and Built a Nation (Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley
& Sons, Inc., 2005), p. 44; Parker, Uncle Sam in Barbary, p. 117.
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