Papers of John Adams, volume 17
I now inclose you a draught of a treaty for the Barbary states, together with the notes Dr. Franklin left me.1 I have retained a 307presscopy of this draught, so that by referring to any article, line & word in it you can propose amendments & send them by the post without any body’s being able to make much of the main subject.2 I shall be glad to receive any alterations you may think necessary as soon as convenient that this matter may be in readiness. I inclose also a letter containing intelligence from Algiers. I know not how far it is to be relied on.3 my anxiety is extreme indeed as to these treaties. what are we to do? we know that Congress have decided ultimately to treat. we know how far they will go. but unfortunately we know also that a particular person has been charged with instructions for us, these five months who neither comes nor writes to us. what are we to do? it is my opinion that if mr̃ Lambe does not come in either of the packets (English or French) now expected, we ought to proceed. I therefore propose to you this term, as the end of our expectations of him, & that if he does not come we send some other person. Dr. Bancroft or capt Jones occur to me as the fittest. if we consider the present object only, I think the former would be most proper: but if we look forward to the very probable event of war with those pirates, an important object would be obtained by capt Jones’s becoming acquainted with their ports, force, tactics &c let me know your opinion on this. I have never mentioned it to either, but I suppose either might be induced to go. present me affectionately to the ladies & Colo. Smith & be assured of the sincerity with which I am Dr. Sir / Your friend & servt.
RC and enclosure (Adams Papers); endorsed: “Mr Jefferson Aug. 6. / ansd. 18. 1785”; docketed by AA2: “T. Jefferson 6. Augt: 1785.”; notation by CFA: “published in his Writings / vol 1. p 267,” that is, Jefferson, Correspondence, ed. Randolph, 1:267–268. FC in Jefferson’s hand (Adams Papers), for which see note 2.
The text of the enclosed draft treaty to be concluded with the Barbary States is printed in Jefferson, Papers
, 8:347–353. He composed it using a table of reference notes that Benjamin Franklin compiled from vols. 5 and 7 of Jean Dumont’s Corps universel diplomatique and gave to Jefferson before he left France in mid-July (Jefferson, Papers
, 8:353). JA could follow the references to Dumont, included by Jefferson in the draft’s left margin beside each article, because he had purchased a copy of the Corps universel diplomatique in 1780 and it remains in his library at MB (vol. 9:113). Jefferson’s notes, which presumably follow those of Franklin, indicate that the articles of the draft Barbary treaty are derived from his 1784 model treaty of amity and commerce (Jefferson, Papers
, 7:479–490), referred to in the notes as the “General Draught”; the Dutch-Moroccan Treaty of 1610, the Franco-Moroccan Treaty of 1682, the Dutch-Moroccan Treaty of Peace, Navigation, and Commerce of 1683, the Franco-Algerian Treaty of 1684, the Anglo-Algerian Treaty of Peace and Commerce of 1686 (Dumont, Corps universel diplomatique
, vol. 5, 2d part, p. 156–60; vol. 7, 2d part, p. 18–19, 64–70, 75–77, 126–127); and Prussia’s 30 April 1781 ordinance regarding navigation and commerce governing its neutrality in the war then subsisting between Britain, France, and the Netherlands (Scott, Armed Neutralities
, p. 391–396). Arts. 2 and 9 of the draft both demanded the immediate release of American captives and property 308“brought by any Barbary vessel into Marocco,” and leaned heavily on Dutch-Moroccan relations as a viable model for peaceable trade.
How Jefferson’s FC, a press copy endorsed by JA “Barbary” and containing the deletions in Art. 17 suggested by JA in his reply of 18 Aug. 1785, below, came to be in the Adams Papers requires some explanation, as Jefferson would have needed it to prepare fair copies of the draft treaty for Thomas Barclay and John Lamb to take on their missions. With one exception, Jefferson recorded on the FC the changes in Art. 17 suggested by JA in his reply of 18 Aug, below. By February 1786, American relations with the Barbary States had deteriorated further, and JA wrote to Jefferson requesting a copy and calling him to London for urgent consultation. It is likely that Jefferson delivered the FC when he met with JA on 11 March (Jefferson, Papers
, 9:285–288, 295, 326).
This enclosure has not been found but was likely a letter from a “Monsieur de Soulanges” dated 14 July at Toulon and informing French authorities that according to John Paul Jones, “the Algerians have declared War against the United States.” John Bondfield at Bordeaux and Jones at Lorient enclosed copies of Soulanges’ letter in theirs to Jefferson of 14 and 31 July, respectively (Jefferson, Papers
, 8:294, 334; PCC, No. 87, I, f. 87–89). Jones also enclosed a copy of Soulanges’ letter in his to John Jay of 6 Aug., for the effect of which see Jay’s first letter of 1 Nov., and note 1, below. Soulanges’ warning was soon reality when, on 25 July, Algerian corsairs seized Isaac Stephens’ ship, the Maria of Boston, and a few days later captured the Dauphin of Philadelphia, Capt. Richard O’Bryen (Frank Lambert, The Barbary Wars: American Independence in the Atlantic World, N.Y., 2005, p. 59). For the plight of the crews of the Maria and the Dauphin, see the 27 Aug. letter from O’Bryen, Stephens, and Zaccheus Coffin, and note 2, below.
As to the Cask of Wine at Auteuil, it is not paid for. if you will pay for it and take it, you will oblige me. by a Sample of it, which I tasted it is good Wine, and very, extreamly cheap.1
I am happy to find We agree So perfectly in the Change which is made in the Project.—2 The Dye is cast. The Proposal is made. Let them ruminate upon it.—
I thought of proposing a Tariff of Duties, that We might pay no more in their Ports than they Should pay in ours. but their Taxes are So essential to their Credit, that it is impossible for them to part with any of them, and We Should not choose to oblige ourselves to lay on as heavy ones. We are at Liberty to do it, however, when We please.
If the English will not abolish their Aliens Duty, relatively to Us, We must establish an Alien Duty in all the United States. an Alien Duty against England alone will not answer the End. She will elude it by employing Dutch, French, Sweedish, or any other ships, and by frenchifying, dutchifying or Sweedishizing her own Ships. If the English will persevere in excluding our Ships from their West India Islands, Canada, Nova Scotia, & Newfoundland, and in demanding 309any Alien Duty of Us in their Ports within the Realm, and in refusing to american built Ships the Priviledges of british built Ships, We must take an higher Ground, a Vantage Ground. We must do more than lay on Alien Duties. We must take measures by which the Increase of Shipping and Seamen will be not only encouraged, but rendered inevitable. We must adopt in all the States the Regulations which were once made in England, 5. Ric. 2. c. 3.3 and ordain that no American Citizen, or Denizen, or alien friend or Ennemy, Shall Ship any Merchandize out of, or into the United States, but only in Ships built in the United States and navigated with an American Captain and three fourths American Seamen.— I Should be Sorry to adopt a Monopoly. but, driven to the necessity of it, I would not do Business by the Halves. The French deserve it of Us as much as the English; for they are as much Ennemies to our Ships & Mariners. Their Navigation Acts are not quite So Severe as those of Spain Portugal and England, as they relate to their Colonies I mean— But they are not much less so. and they discover as strong a Lust to annihilate our navigation as any body.—
Or might We modify a little? might We lay a Duty of ten per Cent on all Goods imported in any but Ships built in the United States, without Saying any Thing about Seamen?
If We were to prohibit all foreign Vessells from carrying on our Coasting Trade, i.e, from trading from one State to another, and from one Port to another in the Same State, We Should do Something, for this Commerce will be So considerable as to employ many Ships and many Seamen; of So much the more Value to Us as they will be always at home and ready for the Defence of their Country. But if We Should only prohibit Importations, except in our own Bottoms or in the Bottoms of the Country or Nation of whose Grouth or Production the Merchandizes are, We Should do nothing effectual against Great Britain. She would desire nothing better than to Send her Productions to our Ports in her own Bottoms and bring away ours in return.
I hope the Members of Congress and the Legislatures of the States will Study the British Acts of Navigation, and make themselves Masters of their Letter and Spirit, that they may judge how far they can be adopted by Us, and indeed whether they are Sufficient to do Justice to our Citizens in their Commerce with Great Britain.
There is another Enquiry which I hope our Countrymen will enter upon, and that is, what Articles of our Produce will bear a Duty 310upon Exportation? all Such Duties are paid by the Consumer, and therefore are so much clear gain. Some of our Commodities will not bear any Such Duties; on the contrary, they will require Encouragement by Bounties: But I Suspect that Several Articles would bear an handsome Impost.
We Shall find our Commerce a complicated Machine and difficult to manage, and I fear We have not many Men, who have turned their Thoughts to it. It must be comprehended by Somebody in its System and in its detail, before it will be regulated as it Should be.
With great and Sincere Esteem, I am, dear sir, your / most obedient
RC and enclosure (DLC:Jefferson Papers); internal address: “His Excellency / Mr Jefferson.” LbC (Adams Papers); APM Reel 111. For the enclosure, which was not entered in the Letterbook, see Jefferson’s 31 July letter, and note 3, above.
This letter is largely a reply to Jefferson’s of 31 July, above, but in this paragraph JA appears to respond to Jefferson’s query in his 7 July letter to AA about what to do with a cask of Gaillac wine at Auteuil (
AFC
, 6:223). In a letter of 7 April, Gazaigner de Boyer, a wine merchant from Gaillac in southwest France on the Tarn River, announced that he was sending the wine to JA at Auteuil in the hope that after tasting it, he might recommend it to the American market (Adams Papers). In a letter of 25 Sept., Jefferson informed AA that he would “chearfully” take the cask of wine, but he indicated that there would be a problem paying for it since he did not know the seller (
AFC
, 6:392).
That is, the draft Anglo-American commercial treaty that JA submitted to the Marquis of Carmarthen as an enclosure in his letter of 29 July, above.
The reference to the statute was interlined.