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

that money for redeeming American prisoners against a commission of
$40,000. 118 The redemption money was paid on July 11, 1796 and the prisoners
were released and sailed from Algiers the following day. At about the same
time the prisoners were leaving, Barlow wrote a long letter to Timothy
Pickering, the new Secretary of State, in which he described how he had
arranged the release despite the fact that his government had sent him no
funds. 119 The Dey would learn about it soon after the prisoners sailed from
Algiers and obviously he was not happy. 120 For President Washington, the
ratification of the treaty and “the actual liberation of all our citizens, who were
prisoners in Algiers, is itself an earnest of a satisfactory termination of the
whole negotiation” 121
but that satisfaction could not be said to extend to
Algiers; its troubles with the United States had just started.
Early in May, Cathcart was given permission to leave for the United
States with a letter from the Dey to Washington. Briefly, the letter said that
eight months had elapsed since the treaty was signed without a single article of
the agreement had been complied with and that Cathcart was dispatched “with
a note of such articles as are required in this Regency.” The ‘note’ was in fact a
long list of naval materials which indicates how Algiers was dependent on
foreign supplies for the armament of its corsairs. 122 Cathcart had written that
the initiative came from the Dey who told him that the reason for his decision
118 For a detailed description of the deal see ibid., pp. 180-82; Barnby, Prisoners of Algiers, pp. 283-85;
and Parker, Uncle Sam in Barbary, pp. 120-21, 255.
119 NDBW, 1:164-66, Barlow to Secretary of State, July 12, 1796.
120 Parker, Uncle Sam in Barbary, p. 121.
121 WGW, 13: 346-47, Speech to both Houses of Congress, December 7 th , I796.
122 For the letter of the Dey and list of demands see Cathcart, “Diplomatic Journal and Letter Book,”
pp. 400 and 398-99 respectively. They are reproduced in Appendix 10.
328