OCR Text |
Show Thomas Jefferson Had A Hostage Crisis, Too Jimmy Carter is not the first American president to be faced with a hostage crisis In the Islamic world. Washington, Adams, Jefferson and Madison were repeatedly plagued pla-gued with just that problem. It was Jefferson Jeffer-son and his Secretary of State and successor succes-sor Madison who came up with a solution. At the time there were, on the Barbary Coast of North Africa, four Islamic kingdoms king-doms - Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Tripoli - which lived mainly be stealing on the high seas. Rather than prevent such outrages, the maritime nations of Europe avoided depredations by paying formal bribes or 'tribute' even as westerners today pay tribute for Arab oil. The UjS. under Washington andAdams, followed the European example. Though the administration built a small Navy in response res-ponse to Arabic threats, it opted, under popular pressure, to mothball the fleet and pay tribute insted. Jefferson and Madison refused to follow such a course. Jefferson sent the infant U.S. Navy to the Mediterranean to engage In defensive operations, protecting American Ameri-can merchant ships. The hostage crisis came in 1803. Late that year the 44 gun frigate, UJSJS. Philadelphia, ran aground on a sand bar off Tripoli, and its entire crew was taken hostage. That was a routine instrument of statecraft In the Islamic world; when European Euro-pean governments proved loath to pay tribute. trib-ute. Barbary Coast rulers whipped them Into line by seizing their nationals and holding hold-ing them In dungeons until they capitulated and incidentally, ransoms were paid. Jeffergqn would have no part of it. He threw the entire UJS. Navy, such as it was, agajhst Tripoli not to free the hostages,' but to teach the Tripolitans never to trifle with the U.S. again. After some spectacular fighting, the Pasha of Tripoli (was forced to agree to cease plundering American ships and to waive American tribute In future. The captives were released, re-leased, unharmed. But the American commander, Edward Preble, was not content to let the matter rest there. Interpreting the president's orders liberally (and properly), he gave the Algerians and Moroccans a tast of the same medicine. The Jefferson administration administra-tion was then able to establish a general settlement on favorable terms. Unfortunately, during the war of 1812, the Algerians took advantage of America's troubles and resumed their raiding. Nearly 200 American merchant seamen were captured, imprisoned, and forced into slavery. As soon as it became possible, the Navy was sent out to tend to the matter. mat-ter. In 1815, Madison dispatched Captain Stephen Decatur to the Mediterranean with three frigates, two sloops of war, and five light Baltimore clipper schooners. Just past the Strait of Gibralter the squadron sighted the Algerian flagship and reduced her to garbage in twenty minutes. Decatur sailed on to Algeria and paid the pasha a prsonal call. Not only must the piracy stop, tribute be forever ended, and the enslaved crews released, but the pasha must pay the United States on an indemnity for having captured the crewmen crew-men In the first place. The pasha demurred, whereupon Decatur De-catur calmly informed him that the Americans Ameri-cans would start sinking Algerian ships, one by one, until either the money was paid or there was not so much as an Algerian Al-gerian rowboat left afloat. The pasha capitulated. capitu-lated. Then Decatur did the same thing with the rulers of Tunis and Tripoli, with the same results. The Barbary rulers were a slippery lot and no doubt planned to go back to their old ways as soon as Decatur was out ' of sight. But they were in for a rude surprise. Decatur had scarcely sailed out before an American squadron under William Bainbridge sailed in to pay a polite social call. The rulers got the message. mes-sage. To make sure they did not forget it, the Navy leased a permanent base at Port Mahon on the Island of Majorca and cruised the Mediterranean on 'friendly' visits for years thereafter. The Barbary Arabs did not forget. |