749. BARBARY STATES, Congress and.—
Nothing was now wanting to bring it
into direct and formal consideration but the
assent of our government, and their authority
to make the formal proposition. I communicated
to them the favorable prospect of
protecting our commerce from the Barbary
depredations, and for such a continuance of
time as, by an exclusion of them from the
sea, to change their habits and characters
from a predatory to an agricultural people:
towards which however it was expected they
would contribute a frigate, and its expenses
to be in constant cruise. But they were in
no condition to make any such engagement.
Their recommendatory powers for obtaining
contributions were so openly neglected by the
several States that they declined an engagement
which they were conscious they could
not fulfil with punctuality; and so it fell
through.—
Autobiography. Washington ed. i, 67.
Ford ed., i, 93.
(1821)
