University of Virginia Library

758. BARBARY STATES, Purchasing Peace with.—[further continued].

It is not in the choice of
the States, whether they will pay money to
cover their trade against the Algerines. If they
obtain a peace by negotiation, they must pay
a great sum of money for it; if they do nothing,
they must pay a great sum of money in the
form of insurance; and in either way, as great
a one as in the way of force, and probably less
effectual.—
To James Monroe. Washington ed. i, 607. Ford ed., iv, 265.
(P. 1786)