Posted on 04/30/2023 1:22:56 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
Summary: As soon as it became an independent nation, the US faced an "unconventional enemy" in the Barbary Pirates who had controlled the Mediterranean Sea for hundreds of years. Presidents George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison all exercised their power as Commander in Chief in various ways to deal with the threat posed by the pirates before Madison was eventually able to declare victory against them.
Narrative: It was the end of the eighteenth century, and for hundreds of years, pirates from the Islamic countries on the coast of North Africa had controlled the Mediterranean Sea. They plundered and looted ships. They captured sailors, holding them for ransom or selling them into the Ottoman (Turkish) slave trade. These pirates considered themselves at war with any nation with which they did not have a "treaty." In fact, these "treaties" were demands for "tributes:" payments to prevent attacks.
The British fleet had defended American ships from the Barbary pirates while it was part of England. Once the US won its independence, however, US ships were on their own. Congress appropriated money for "tributes," but the attacks continued. By 1794, the pirates were holding dozens of US citizens for ransom. Thomas Jefferson, who was then President George Washington's Secretary of State, advised Congress to declare war on the pirates. Congress did not heed his advice. Washington sent diplomats to negotiate for the prisoners' release, but with no success. When John Adams became President in 1797, he continued paying the pirates. Congress continued to authorize payments. By the turn of the century, Congress was paying twenty percent of the US's annual revenue to the pirates.
(Excerpt) Read more at billofrightsinstitute.org ...
President Thomas Jefferson took office in 1801. Jefferson, who believed that paying off the pirates only led to more demands, announced that there would be no more tributes paid. Tripoli demanded a payment of $225,000 on top of annual payments of $25,000. Jefferson refused to pay, and Tripoli declared war on the US.
Jefferson announced in his First Annual Message to Congress, "Tripoli, the least considerable of the Barbary States, had come forward with demands unfounded either in right or in compact, and had [threatened] war, on our failure to comply before a given day. The style of the demand admitted but one answer. I sent a small squadron of frigates into the Mediterranean. . . ."
Jefferson took this defensive military action without seeking a declaration of war from Congress. He believed that a more decisive response would be needed, and so he asked Congress for formal action. In response, Congress passed the "Act for Protection of Commerce and Seamen of the United States against the Tripolitan Corsairs." This act authorized an expanded force to "subdue, seize and make prize of all vessels, goods and effects, belonging to the Bey of Tripoli, or to his subjects."
Years later in 1815, President James Madison sent the navy to the Barbary Coast once again. (The phrase "to the shores of Tripoli" from the Marine Hymn refers to this historic battle.) Madison eventually declared victory against the pirates in his Seventh Annual Message to Congress.
I might argue that today all Governments are the Pirates, and they are all running a giant ‘protection’ scheme.
The rest of the Barbary Pirates keyword, sorted:
To the shores of Tripoli.
From dang near day one of our existence as a nation, we were having to carry the Eupers’ water because they just couldn’t take care of the problems in their own area.
Edward Preble, IIRC
I just read Kilmeads’ book on the subject. The pirates went out into the Atlantic, not just the Mediterranean. Ships of both nations were docked in Gibrealer here they couldn’t fight each other unless they went out to sea.
Question: Was this another deep state endeavor? It was merchants they were after, not us. US taxpayers get stuck with the bill. Europe wouldn’t defend themselves.
Revenue into the U.S. Treasury during that time frame came substantially solely from customs duties. So to the extent trade was brutalized by the pirates, customs duties fell. The military expenditures were justified once the political decision was made (basically beginning with Jefferson) that the U.S. was bloody well sick and tired of paying monetary tribute to the mercurial Beys.
They didn’t bother Brits or Frogs cause those navies bloodied them. The Italian city states found it cheaper to pay as did the Portagee. Spain went back and forth.
“Revenue into the U.S. Treasury during that time frame came substantially solely from customs duties.”
Every major city on the east coast had a Customs House-usually a very well built city.
After the Eire Canal was built, New York City became the largest city in the USA. That canal reduced transportation costs by as much as 90% for many products. Both intranational and international trade expanded because of the canal.
ping
Hagiography, not history.
In actuality, all the European seagoing nations either fought the pirates or bought them off, as seemed expedient. Americans sometimes copied the gambits.
President Jefferson was opposed to a blue-water navy - too expensive, too destabilizing geopolitically (he believed); he reversed many of President Adams’ foreign-policy initiatives along such lines. The pirates responded accordingly.
Piracy began to wane after a US squadron was sent to attack or accept surrender in 1815; fresh from naval success in the War of 1812, Americans were feeling their oats. The pirate powers caved.
The decline really gained momentum when the Royal Navy, no longer warring against Napoleonic France, implemented the British policy of shelling every seaside town on the Barbary Coast suspected of being a pirate base.
It culminated in the Battle of Navarino in October 1827 - the last major naval engagement fought entirely between sail-powered warships. The Ottoman Turks were defeated by the Euro powers and agreed to bring the pirates into line.
“...Years later in 1815, President James Madison sent the navy to the Barbary Coast once again. (The phrase “to the shores of Tripoli” from the Marine Hymn refers to this historic battle.)...” [from the original article]
This assertion keeps popping up but it is mistaken.
The line in the USMC hymn refers to the capture of Derna in 1805. After marching 500 miles along the coast of Libya, US Marines commanded by Lt Presely O’Bannon together with civilian William Eaton and Berber mercenaries did battle to depose the Pasha of Tripoli.
Thanks schurmann!
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