. What, pray, were the United States? Bainbridge explained that
they were part of the New World which Columbus had discovered. The Grand
Seigneur then showed great interest in the stars of the American flag,
remarking that, as his own was decorated with one of the heavenly
bodies, the coincidence must be a good omen of the future friendly
intercourse of the two nations. Bainbridge did his best to turn his
unpalatable mission to good account, but he returned home in bitter
humiliation. He begged that he might never again be sent to Algiers with
tribute unless he was authorized to deliver it from the cannon's mouth.

The President listened sympathetically to Bainbridge's story, for he
was not unfamiliar with the ways of the Barbary Corsairs and he had long
been of the opinion that tribute only made these pirates bolder and more
insufferable. The Congress of the Confederation, however, had followed
the policy of the European powers and had paid tribute to secure
immunity from attack, and the new Government had simply continued the
policy of the old. In spite of his abhorrence of war, Jefferson held
that coercion in this instance was on the whole cheaper and more
efficacious. Not long after this interview with Bainbridge, President
Jefferson was warned that the Pasha of Tripoli was worrying the American
Consul with importunate demands for more tribute. This African potentate
had discovered that his brother, the Dey of Algiers, had made a better
bargain with the United States. He announced, therefore, that he must
have a new treaty with more tribute or he would declare war. Fearing
trouble from this quarter, the President dispatched a squadron of four
vessels under Commodore Richard Dale to cruise in the Mediterranean,
with orders to protect American commerce. It was the schooner Enterprise
of this squadron which overpowered the Tripolitan cruiser, as Jefferson
recounted in his message to Congress.

The former Pasha of Tripoli had been blessed with three sons, Hasan,
Hamet, and Yusuf. Between these royal brothers, however, there seems
to have been some incompatibility of temperament, for when their father
died (Blessed be Allah!) Yusuf, the youngest, had killed Hasan and had
spared Hamet only because he could not lay hands upon him. Yusuf then
proclaimed himself Pasha. It was Yusuf, the Pasha with this bloody
record, who declared war on the United States, May 10,1801, by cutting
down the flagstaff of the American consulate.