Treaty of Tripoli

�� Treaty of Tripoli

�� by David Barton

�� Over the last several months we have noticed with increasing interest how often

�� the Treaty of Tripoli, specifically article XI, is being misused in editorial columns,

�� articles, as well as in other areas of the media, both Christian and secular. We

�� have received numerous questions from people who have been misled by the

�� claims that are being made, namely, that America was not founded as a Christian

�� nation. Advocates of this idea use the Treaty of Tripoli as the foundation of their

�� entire argument, and we believe you deserve to know the truth regarding this

�� often misused document.

�� The following is an excerpt from David�s book Original Intent:

�� To determine whether the "Founding Fathers" were generally atheists, agnostics,

�� and deists, one must first define those terms. An "atheist" is one who professes

�� to believe that there is no God;1 an "agnostic" is one who professes that nothing

�� can be known beyond what is visible and tangible;2 and a "deist" is one who

�� believes in an impersonal God who is no longer involved with mankind. (In other

�� words, a "deist" embraces the "clockmaker theory" 3 that there was a God who

�� made the universe and wound it up like a clock; however, it now runs of its own

�� volition; the clockmaker is gone and therefore does not respond to man.)

�� Today the terms "atheist," "agnostic," and "deist" have been used together so

�� often that their meanings have almost become synonymous. In fact, many

�� dictionaries list these words as synonym.4

�� Those who advance the notion that this was the belief system of the Founders

�� often publish information attempting to prove that the Founders were irreligious.5

�� One of the quotes they set forth is the following:

�� The government of the United States is in no sense founded on the

�� Christian religion.GEORGE WASHINGTON

�� The 1797 Treaty of Tripoli is the source of Washington�s supposed statement. Is

�� this statement accurate? Did this prominent Founder truly repudiate religion? An

�� answer will be found by an examination of its source.

�� That treaty, one of several with Tripoli, was negotiated during the "Barbary

�� Powers Conflict," which began shortly after the Revolutionary War and continued

�� through the Presidencies of Washington, Adams, Jefferson, and Madison.6 The

�� Muslim Barbary Powers (Tunis, Morocco, Algiers, Tripoli, and Turkey) were warring

�� against what they claimed to be the "Christian" nations (England, France, Spain,

�� Denmark, and the United States). In 1801, Tripoli even declared war against the

�� United States,7 thus constituting America�s first official war as an established

�� independent nation.

�� Throughout this long conflict, the five Barbary Powers regularly attacked

�� undefended American merchant ships. Not only were their cargoes easy prey but

�� the Barbary Powers were also capturing and enslaving "Christian" seamen8 in

�� retaliation for what had been done to them by the "Christians" of previous

�� centuries (e.g., the Crusades and Ferdinand and Isabella�s expulsion of Muslims

�� from Granada9).

�� In an attempt to secure a release of captured seamen and a guarantee of

�� unmolested shipping in the Mediterranean, President Washington dispatched

�� envoys to negotiate treaties with the Barbary nations.10(Concurrently, he

�� encouraged the construction of American naval warships11 to defend the

�� shipping and confront the Barbary "pirates"�a plan not seriously pursued until

�� President John Adams created a separate Department of the Navy in 1798.) The

�� American envoys negotiated numerous treaties of "Peace and Amity" 12 with the

�� Muslim Barbary nations to ensure "protection" of American commercial ships

�� sailing in the Mediterranean.13 However, the terms of the treaty frequently were

�� unfavorable to America, either requiring her to pay hundreds of thousands of

�� dollars of "tribute" (i.e., official extortion) to each country to receive a

�� "guarantee" of safety or to offer other "considerations" (e.g., providing a warship

�� as a "gift" to Tripoli,14 a "gift" frigate to Algiers,15 paying $525,000 to ransom

�� captured American seamen from Algiers,16 etc.).

�� The 1797 treaty with Tripoli was one of the many treaties in which each country

�� officially recognized the religion of the other in an attempt to prevent further

�� escalation of a "Holy War" between Christians and Muslims.17 Consequently,

�� Article XI of that treaty stated:

�� As the government of the United States of America is not in any

�� sense founded on the Christian religion as it has in itself no character

�� of enmity [hatred] against the laws, religion or tranquility of

�� Musselmen [Muslims] and as the said States [America] have never

�� entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mahometan

�� nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from

�� religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony

�� existing between the two countries.18

�� This article may be read in two manners. It may, as its critics do, be concluded

�� after the clause "Christian religion"; or it may be read in its entirety and

�� concluded when the punctuation so indicates. But even if shortened and cut

�� abruptly ("the government of the United States is not in any sense founded on

�� the Christian religion"), this is not an untrue statement since it is referring to the

�� federal government.

�� Recall that while the Founders themselves openly described America as a

�� Christian nation (demonstrated in chapter 2 of Original Intent), they did include a

�� constitutional prohibition against a federal establishment; religion was a matter

�� left solely to the individual States. Therefore, if the article is read as a

�� declaration that the federal government of the United States was not in any

�� sense founded on the Christian religion, such a statement is not a repudiation of

�� the fact that America was considered a Christian nation.

�� Reading the clause of the treaty in its entirety also fails to weaken this fact.

�� Article XI simply distinguished America from those historical strains of European

�� Christianity which held an inherent hatred of Muslims; it simply assured the

�� Muslims that the United States was not a Christian nation like those of previous

�� centuries (with whose practices the Muslims were very familiar) and thus would

�� not undertake a religious holy war against them.

�� This latter reading is, in fact, supported by the attitude prevalent among

�� numerous American leaders. The Christianity practiced in America was described

�� by John Jay as "enlightened," 19 by John Quincy Adams as "civilized," 20 and by

�� John Adams as "rational." 21 A clear distinction was drawn between American

�� Christianity and that of Europe in earlier centuries. As Noah Webster explained:

�� The ecclesiastical establishments of Europe which serve to support

�� tyrannical governments are not the Christian religion but abuses and

�� corruptions of it.22

�� Daniel Webster similarly explained that American Christianity was:

�� Christianity to which the sword and the fagot [burning stake or hot

�� branding iron] are unknown�general tolerant Christianity is the law of

�� the land!23

�� Those who attribute the Treaty of Tripoli quote to George Washington make two

�� mistakes. The first is that no statement in it can be attributed to Washington

�� (the treaty did not arrive in America until months after he left office);

�� Washington never saw the treaty; it was not his work; no statement in it can be

�� ascribed to him. The second mistake is to divorce a single clause of the treaty

�� from the remainder which provides its context.

��It would also be absurd to suggest that President Adams (under whom the treaty

�� was ratified in 1797) would have endorsed or assented to any provision which

�� repudiated Christianity. In fact, while discussing the Barbary conflict with

�� Jefferson, Adams declared:

�� The policy of Christendom has made cowards of all their sailors

�� before the standard of Mahomet. It would be heroical and glorious in

�� us to restore courage to ours. 24

�� Furthermore, it was Adams who declared:

�� The general principles on which the fathers achieved independence

�� were. . . . the general principles of Christianity. . . . I will avow that I

�� then believed, and now believe, that those general principles of

�� Christianity are as eternal and immutable as the existence and

�� attributes of God; and that those principles of liberty are as

�� unalterable as human nature. 25

�� Adams�own words confirm that he rejected any notion that America was less

�� than a Christian nation.

�� Additionally, the writings of General William Eaton, a major figure in the Barbary

�� Powers conflict, provide even more irrefutable testimony of how the conflict was

�� viewed at that time. Eaton was first appointed by President John Adams as

�� "Consul to Tunis," and President Thomas Jefferson later advanced him to the

�� position of "U. S. Naval Agent to the Barbary States," authorizing him to lead a

�� military expedition against Tripoli. Eaton�s official correspondence during his

�� service confirms that the conflict was a Muslim war against a Christian America.

�� For example, when writing to Secretary of State Timothy Pickering, Eaton

�� apprised him of why the Muslims would be such dedicated foes:

�� Taught by revelation that war with the Christians will guarantee the

�� salvation of their souls, and finding so great secular advantages in

�� the observance of this religious duty [the secular advantage of

�� keeping captured cargoes], their [the Muslims�] inducements to

�� desperate fighting are very powerful.26

�� Eaton later complained that after Jefferson had approved his plan for military

�� action, he sent him the obsolete warship "Hero." Eaton reported the impression of

�� America made upon the Tunis Muslims when they saw the old warship and its few

�� cannons:

�� [T]he weak, the crazy situation of the vessel and equipage

�� [armaments] tended to confirm an opinion long since conceived and

�� never fairly controverted among the Tunisians, that the Americans

�� are a feeble sect of Christians.27

�� In a later letter to Pickering, Eaton reported how pleased one Barbary ruler had

�� been when he received the extortion compensations from America which had

�� been promised him in one of the treaties:

�� He said, "To speak truly and candidly . . . . we must acknowledge to

�� you that we have never received articles of the kind of so excellent

�� a quality from any Christian nation." 28

�� When John Marshall became the new Secretary of State, Eaton informed him:

�� It is a maxim of the Barbary States, that "The Christians who would

�� be on good terms with them must fight well or pay well." 29

�� And when General Eaton finally commenced his military action against Tripoli, his

�� personal journal noted:

�� April 8th. We find it almost impossible to inspire these wild bigots with

�� confidence in us or to persuade them that, being Christians, we can

�� be otherwise than enemies to Musselmen. We have a difficult

�� undertaking!30

�� May 23rd. Hassien Bey, the commander in chief of the enemy�s

�� forces, has offered by private insinuation for my head six thousand

�� dollars and double the sum for me a prisoner; and $30 per head for

�� Christians. Why don�t he come and take it?31

�� Shortly after the military excursion against Tripoli was successfully terminated,

�� its account was written and published. Even the title of the book bears witness

�� to the nature of the conflict:

�� The Life of the Late Gen. William Eaton . . . commander of the

�� Christian and Other Forces . . . which Led to the Treaty of Peace

�� Between The United States and The Regency of Tripoli32

�� The numerous documents surrounding the Barbary Powers Conflict confirm that

�� historically it was always viewed as a conflict between Christian America and

�� Muslim nations. Those documents completely disprove the notion that any

�� founding President, especially Washington, ever declared that America was not a

�� Christian nation or people. (Chapter 16 of Original Intent will provide numerous

�� additional current examples of historical revisionism.)

�� Endnotes

�� 1. American Heritage Dictionary, 2nd College Edition, s.v. "atheism."

�� 2. Id., s.v. "agnostic."

�� 3. Id., s.v. "deism"; see also American College Dictionary (1947), s.v. "deism."

�� 4. Webster�s New World Dictionary of the American Language (1964), see synonym for "deist";

�� Webster�s Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary(1963), see synonym for "atheism"; The Century

�� Dictionary and Cyclopedia(1895), Vol. I, see synonym for "atheist"; Funk & Wagnalls Standard

�� Dictionary of the English Language (1966), see synonyms for "skeptic."

�� 5. Society of Separationists, "Did you know that these great American thinkers all rejected

�� Christianity?" (Austin, TX: American Atheist Center); see also Los Angeles Times, August 3,

�� 1995, p. B‑9, "America�s Unchristian Beginnings," Steven Morris.

�� 6.Naval Documents Related to the United States Wars with the Barbary Powers, Claude A. Swanson,

�� editor (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1939), Vol. I, p. V.

�� 7. Glen Tucker,Dawn Like Thunder: The Barbary Wars and the Birth of the U. S. Navy

�� (Indianapolis: Bobbs‑Merrill Company, 1963), p. 127.

�� 8. A General View of the Rise, Progress, and Brilliant Achievements of the American Navy, Down to the

�� Present Time(Brooklyn, 1828), pp. 70‑71.

�� 9. Tucker, p. 50.

�� 10. President Washington selected Col. David Humphreys in 1793 as sole commissioner of

�� Algerian affairs to negotiate treaties with Algeria, Tripoli and Tunis. He also appointed Joseph

�� Donaldson, Jr., as Consul to Tunis and Tripoli. In February of 1796, Humphreys delegated power

�� to Donaldson and/or Joel Barlow to form treaties. James Simpson, U. S. Consul to Gibraltar, was

�� dispatched to renew the treaty with Morocco in 1795. On October 8, 1796, Barlow commissioned

�� Richard O�Brien to negotiate the treaty of peace with Tripoli. See, for example, Ray W. Irwin, The

�� Diplomatic Relations of the United States with the Barbary Powers (Chapel Hill: The University of

�� North Carolina Press, 1931), p. 84.

�� 11. J. Fenimore Cooper,The History of the Navy of the United States of America (Philadelphia:

�� Thomas, Cowperthwait & Co., 1847), pp. 123‑124; see also A Compilation of the Messages and

�� Papers of the Presidents: 1789‑1897, James D. Richardson, editor (Washington, D. C.:

�� Published by Authority of Congress, 1899), Vol. I, pp. 201‑202, from Washington�s Eighth Annual

�� Address of December 7, 1796.

�� 12. See, for example, the treaty with Morocco: ratified by the United States on July 18, 1787.

�� Treaties and Other International Agreements of the United States of America: 1776‑1949,

�� Charles I. Bevans, editor (Washington, D. C.: Department of State, 1968‑1976), Vol. IX, pp.

�� 1278‑1285; Algiers: concluded September 5, 1795; ratified by the U. S. Senate March 2, 1796;

�� see also, "Treaty of Peace and Amity" concluded June 30 and July 6, 1815; proclaimed

�� December 26, 1815, Treaties and Conventions Concluded Between the United States of America

�� and Other Powers Since July 4, 1776 (Washington, D. C.: Government Printing Office, 1889), pp.

�� 1‑15; Tripoli: concluded November 4, 1796; ratified June 10, 1797; see also, "Treaty of Peace

�� and Amity" concluded June 4, 1805; ratification advised by the U. S. Senate April 12, 1806.

�� Treaties, Conventions, International Acts, Protocols and Agreements between the United States

�� of America and Other Powers: 1776‑1909, William M. Malloy, editor (Washington, D. C.:

�� Government Printing Office, 1910), Vol. II, pp. 1785‑1793; Tunis: concluded August 1797;

�� ratification advised by the Senate, with amendments, March 6, 1798; alterations concluded March

�� 26, 1799; ratification again advised by the Senate December 24, 1799. Treaties, Conventions,

�� International Acts, Protocols and Agreements between the United States of America and Other

�� Powers: 1776‑1909, William M. Malloy, editor (Washington, D. C.: Government Printing Office,

�� 1910), Vol. II, pp. 1794‑1799.

�� 13. Gardner W. Allen, Our Navy and the Barbary Corsairs (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Company,

�� 1905), pp. 33, 45, 56, 60.

�� 14. Allen, p. 66.

�� 15. Allen, p. 57.

�� 16. Allen, p. 56.

�� 17. (See general bibliographic information from footnote 17 for each of these

�� references)Morocco: see Articles 10, 11, 17, and 24; Algiers: See Treaty of 1795, Article 17, and

�� Treaty of 1815, Article 17; Tripoli: See Treaty of 1796, Article 11, and Treaty of 1805, Article 14;

�� Tunis: See forward to Treaty.

�� 18. Acts Passed at the First Session of the Fifth Congress of the United States of America

�� (Philadelphia: William Ross, 1797), pp. 43‑44.

�� 19. William Jay,The Life of John Jay (New York: J. & J. Harper, 1833), p. 80, from his "Charge to

�� the Grand Jury of Ulster County" on September 9, 1777.

�� 20. John Quincy Adams,An Oration Delivered Before the Inhabitants of the Town of Newburyport at

�� Their Request on the Sixty‑First Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence (Newburyport: Charles

�� Whipple, 1837), p. 17.

�� 21. John Adams, The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States, Charles Francis

�� Adams, editor (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1856), Vol. IX, p. 121, in a speech to both

�� houses of Congress, November 23, 1797.

�� 22 Noah Webster, History of the United States (New Haven: Durrie & Peck, 1832), p. 339.

�� 23. Daniel Webster, Mr. Webster�s Speech in Defence of the Christian Ministry and In favor of the

�� Religious Instruction of the Young. Delivered in the Supreme Court of the United States, February 10,

�� 1844, in the Case of Stephen Girard�s Will (Washington: Gales and Seaton, 1844), p. 52.

�� 24. John Adams, Works, Vol. VIII, p. 407, to Thomas Jefferson on July 3, 1786.

�� 25. John Adams, Works, Vol. X, pp. 45‑46, to Thomas Jefferson on June 28, 1813.

�� 26. Charles Prentiss, The Life of the Late Gen. William Eaton: Several Years an Officer in the United

�� States� Army Consul at the Regency of Tunis on the Coast of Barbary, and Commander of the Christian

�� and Other Forces that Marched from Egypt Through the Desert of Barca, in 1805, and Conquered the City

�� of Derne, Which Led to the Treaty of Peace Between the United States and the Regency of Tripoli

�� (Brookfield: Merriam & Company, 1813), pp. 92‑93, from General Eaton to Timothy Pickering,

�� June 15, 1799.

�� 27. Prentiss, p. 146, from General Eaton to Mr. Smith, June 27, 1800.

�� 28. Prentiss, p. 150, from General Eaton to Timothy Pickering on July 4, 1800.

�� 29. Prentiss, p. 185, from General Eaton to General John Marshall, September 2, 1800.

�� 30. Prentiss, p. 325, from Eaton�s journal, April 8, 1805.

�� 31. Prentiss, p. 334, from Eaton�s journal, May 23, 1805.

�� 32. Prentiss.

Watchman Willie Martin Archive