753. BARBARY STATES, Jefferson's Views on.—[continued].
Were the honor and advantage
of establishing such a confederacy [against the piratical powers] out of the question,
yet the necessity that the United States
should have some marine force, and the hap
piness of this, as the ostensible cause for beginning
it, would decide on its propriety. It
will be said, there is no money in the treasury.
There never will be money in the treasury, till
the confederacy shows its teeth. The States
must see the rod; perhaps it must be felt by
some one of them. I am persuaded, all of
them would rejoice to see every one obliged to
furnish its contributions. It is not the difficulty
of furnishing them, which beggars the
treasury, but the fear that others will not furnish
as much. Every rational citizen must wish
to see an effective instrument of coercion, and
should fear to see it on any other element than
the water.—
To James Monroe. Washington ed. i, 606.
Ford ed., iv, 264.
(P.
1786)
