761. BARBARY STATES, Purchasing Peace with.—[further continued] .
In London Mr. Adams
and I had conferences with a Tripoline ambassador,
named Abdrahaman. He asked us
thirty thousand guineas for a peace with his
court, and as much for Tunis, for which he
said he could answer. What we were authorized
to offer, being to this but as a drop to a
bucket, our conferences were repeated only for
the purpose of obtaining information. If the
demands of Algiers and Morocco should be in
proportion to this, according to their superior
power, it is easy to foresee that the United
States will not buy a peace with money.—
To William Carmichael. Washington ed. i, 551.
(P.
1786)
