Historians disagree on how many Americans were actually held prisoner in North Africa from 1784 to 1815, with estimates of between four and seven hundred men.102 However, some argue that only slightly more than half of the 307 sailors captured when the American warship Philadelphia ran aground were native-born Americans, the rest being British.103 Our best assessment is that almost 90 percent of Americans seized by North African pirates were eventually ransomed and returned home.104
JEFFERSON’S TREATY WITH TRIPOLI AND THE QUESTION OF ISLAM, 1806
Religion had never figured previously in Jefferson’s diplomatic dealings with North African states, but the language of his treaty with Tripoli, compared with that of Adams’s previous treaty, indicates that religion had entered into his thinking. Article 14 of Jefferson’s Tripoli treaty, for instance, omits the clause Cobbett had complained about in Adams’s earlier Article 11: “the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion.”105 It is curious that Jefferson would have chosen to exclude mention of a principle of government that he had actively championed since 1776, but perhaps attacks upon his Christianity during the presidential election moved him toward reticence to avoid further conflict. He did, however, choose to retain and thus reaffirm Adams’s end to anti-Islamic sentiments concerning America’s official stance toward the beliefs of Muslims: “As the Government of the United States of America has in itself no character of enmity against the Laws, Religion or Tranquility of Musselmen.”106 Whatever Jefferson’s calculations, the treaty was signed on June 4, 1805, in Tripoli and ratified by the U.S. Senate on April 17, 1806, by a vote of twenty-one to eight.107 When it was published in various newspapers across the land, no outcry was heard, nor did Federalists renew their attack on Jefferson as being an infidel Muslim. He had after all only retained language that the unimpeachably Christian Adams had approved.
Unlike Adams’s treaty, which contained no Arabic equivalent for this language about Islam and Muslims, Jefferson’s Arabic version reflected these ideas accurately.108 As a result of his naval action, however, Jefferson’s treaty could no longer claim that the United States had never entered “into any war or act of hostility against any Mehomitan nation.”109 Language was therefore inserted to make military intervention seem less belligerent: “and as the said States never have entered into any voluntary war or act of hostility against any Mahometan Nation, except in the defence of their just rights to freely navigate the High Seas.”110 The United States might not have declared war on Tripoli, but it justified its use of force as a principled effort to reclaim the right to “freely navigate” the Mediterranean. To emphasize this point, Jefferson’s version included, with minor variations, another clause from Adams’s: “It is declared by the contracting parties that no pretext arising from Religious Opinions, shall ever produce an interruption of the Harmony existing between the two Nations.”111
With these words, Article 11 of the first Tripoli treaty concluded, but Jefferson’s Article 14 continued with new language about the freedom of religion, whose exercise was to be permitted the representatives of both nations—and their slaves: “And the Consuls and Agents of both Nations respectively, shall have liberty to exercise his Religion in his own house; all slaves of the same Religion shall not be impeded in going to said Consuls house at hours of Prayer.”112 This reciprocal guarantee was of course a constitutional, if not practical, reality in America. Nevertheless, both Jefferson and Madison, his secretary of state, believed it was important that the United States set itself apart from the European powers by espousing freedom of conscience. In the Islamic context, Christians already should have been able to practice their faith privately. In America, Jefferson’s first chance to make good on this provision would come with the visit of a Muslim ambassador to Washington even before the treaty was approved by the Senate.
The treaty language defining Islam as a significant, relevant, and unthreatening faith in 1806 in fact confirmed an important new principle of American foreign policy. Navigation of the high seas might provoke disputes between the United States and Muslim states, but religious differences never would. Yet the fact remained that American treaties with European powers, whether Protestant or Catholic, did not even mention the Christian religion. Only Islam merited special mention in diplomatic documents, underscoring a central contradiction: Whatever the Constitution had accomplished regarding official neutrality in matters of religion, most Americans, Adams and Jefferson included, had little respect for Islam as a faith, making it necessary that these prejudices be formally overwritten, for the sake of peaceful relations with a more powerful nation. But unlike Adams, Jefferson, despite his negative views of Islam, would also demonstrate privately his diplomatic approbation of the faith and its North African practitioners.
James Madison would take a cue from Jefferson’s precedent during his presidency in his later treaty with Algiers, the last of the pirate powers. President Madison’s military action against the dey’s dominion ended the threat of piracy once and for all in 1815. Article 15 of Madison’s treaty channeled the spirit of Jefferson’s Article 14, but without explicit mention of Islam, making instead a universalist statement: “As the Government of the United States of America has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquility of any nation,”113 despite its need for self-defense on the “high seas,” “no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of Harmony between the two nations.”114 Interestingly, the Turkish version of Madison’s treaty omitted this clause.115 And American diplomats, once again, would unwittingly approve a treaty with an Islamic power whose foreign translation was faulty.
JEFFERSON RECEIVES THE FIRST MUSLIM AMBASSADOR IN WASHINGTON, 1805–6
In 1805, prior to the ratification of his treaty with Tripoli, President Jefferson welcomed a Tunisian envoy to his new capital, stirring great public fascination.116 The presence of the North African diplomat would pose unusual challenges, but also an opportunity for Jefferson and Secretary Madison both to observe a Muslim ambassador up close and to demonstrate the genuineness of the American commitment to religious freedom with a show of awareness and sensitivity to Islamic ritual practice. Unfortunately, Jefferson’s direct observations of the nearly yearlong visit remain limited, with one key exception: a letter he composed, revised, and finally sent privately to Tunis with the returning envoy.
Sidi Suleyman Mellimelli arrived in Washington in November 1805 to negotiate the return of a Tunisian warship and two other vessels seized by the American navy.117 (The Tunisian vessels had been caught attempting to aid Tripoli by running the American blockade of the harbor there.)118 By now the Tunisian ruler also hoped to lift a naval blockade of his own harbor, which had come after an imprudent threat of war against the United States if his ships were not returned. In response, Commodore John Rodgers sailed into the harbor of Tunis with a force of “five frigates, two brigs, two schooners, one sloop, and eight gunboats,” demanding that the bey decide within thirty-six hours whether he wanted war or peace.119 The time ran out without a shot being fired by the United States, and it was now the Tunisian ruler who proposed to dispatch his representative to resolve the issue and arrange for the removal of the U.S. force from his harbor.120 That end would be achieved thanks in no small part to a private correspondence that Jefferson had been conducting with the bey since a month after his inauguration in 1801.121
The visit would be Jefferson’s second encounter with a Muslim ambassador and Madison’s first. Senator William Plumer of New Hampshire recorded in his journal the most detailed observations of the Tunisian, along with some of his conversations about the visitor with President Jefferson. The senator was with Jefferson at the White House when cannon fire at Alexandria, Virginia, announced the ambassador’s arrival. Though Plumer thought the visit a “mark of respect,” Jefferson countered that the Tunisians undertook it “unwillingly,”122 also telling Plumer that he would “Pay no tribute to Tunis.”12
3 It was a touchy point. Newspapers such as the Hampshire Federalist carried Jefferson’s announcement of the visit, which he represented “as proof of friendship” that the Tunisian vessels would be “restored,” which, he implied, was not tribute but rather reparations.124
Jefferson had rented Stelle’s Hotel in Washington, D.C., to house the envoy and his eleven-person entourage, plus his Italian band.125 He hoped to recoup these entertainment expenses by selling or putting out to stud the four horses brought by the ambassador as a gift.126 What the president did not share with Senator Plumer, who found out anyway, was that Mellimelli had requested “one or more women” with whom to spend a portion of the night.127 It was Secretary Madison who would procure for the ambassador one “Georgia a Greek,” billing the Department of State with the droll notation, “Appropriations to foreign intercourse,” as required by “very urgent and unforeseen occurrences.”128 He could not have done so without consulting the president, whose own private life, after all, still included the slave concubine Sally Hemings.129
Jefferson suffers by comparison with the Tunisian in Senator Plumer’s review of the president’s attire and the envoy’s.130 The senator writes that the president wore a “blue coat, red vest,” and “white hose ragged slippers with his toes out—clean linen—but hair disheveled.”131 When the senator visited Mellimelli, he noted that “his military robes” shone in “fine scarlet,” which was “inwrought with much gold” and complemented by “yellow shoes” and a “turban of fine white muslin,” the entire aspect “elegant and rich” alongside Jefferson’s shabbiness. Plumer further reports of the Muslim ambassador that “his complexion is about as dark as that of a Molatto [Mulatto]”132 and that he described himself as “a Turk.”133 As for Mellimelli’s retainers, they were all “large black men.”134
Plumer was most impressed by the ambassador’s “elegant” gold and diamond snuff box, from which his guest would later enjoy a snort with his host.135 Like the ambassador from Tripoli, the ambassador from Tunis smoked a pipe that was “four feet long.” For all this luxurious display, Plumer initially concluded of the Tunisian that he was “a man, between the Savage & civilized state.” Despite these prejudices, he remained impressed to see that Mellimelli’s “manners were easy & really graceful” and his “countenance is good—it bespeaks intelligence and integrity.”136
When the secretary of the navy paid a call, he observed that because it was Ramadan, the Tunisian envoy was praying “on his hands & knees on a very fine skin that was spread on the carpet.”137 Actually, the ambassador’s prayer times would have remained the same, even during the month-long holiday when all Muslims fast and abstain from liquids from dawn to dusk in remembrance of God’s revelation of the Qur’an to the Prophet Muhammad.
Since the Tunisian explained to his visitor that “he could not eat this month until after sunset,” the two met after sundown for coffee.138 Mellimelli was, by his own account, “a very firm believer in the Alcoran—he reads and expounds a lesson from it every day to his household.”139
Recognizing the importance of Ramadan, Jefferson too made accommodations for his guest, changing the time of the state dinner accordingly. The original invitation, probably issued December 6, had dinner scheduled for “half after three,” when all Washington would have typically supped.140 Jefferson moved it to “precisely at sunset,” although this still did not allow the Muslim ambassador time enough to mark the end of daylight before breaking his fast.141 Ironically, the most detailed account of this “Ramadan” dinner at the White House was recorded by John Quincy Adams, author of Publicola’s anti-Islamic invective against Jefferson fourteen years earlier:
I dined at the President’s, in company with the Tunisian Ambassador and his two secretaries. By invitation, the dinner was to have been on the table precisely at sunset—it being in the midst of Ramadan, during which the Turks fast while the sun is above the horizon. He did not arrive until half an hour after sunset, and, immediately after greeting the President and the company, proposed to retire and smoke his pipe. The President requested him to smoke it there, which he accordingly did, taking at the same time snuff deeply scented with otto [attar] of roses. We then went to dinner, where he freely partook of the dishes on the table without enquiring into the cookery.142
During dinner, Mellimelli’s two secretaries left and seized the opportunity “to take each a glass of wine.” (They sipped surreptitiously, because alcohol was prohibited by their faith.) Adams added that their “manners are courteous,” though an interpreter was needed, as usual, to facilitate communication in Italian.143
The Tunisian ambassador was in Washington at the same time as a delegation of Native Americans, also negotiating treaties with the United States. When they visited Mellimelli to pay their diplomatic respects, he asked them about their religion. Plumer recounts the ex- change:
The Minister asked them what God they worshipped. The Indians answered The Great Spirit. He then asked them if they believed in Mahomed, Abraham, or Jesus Christ? They answered neither. He then asked what prophet do you worship. They replied none. We worship the Great Spirit without an agent.144
The Tunisian immediately condemned them as “all vile Hereticks.” Later, Plumer also reports an exchange between Jefferson and the Tunisian concerning Native American religion. Mellimelli asked Jefferson “how he could prove Indians were the descendants of Adam?” Jefferson answered both diplomatically and as a man who would never take scripture literally: “it was difficult.”145
It wasn’t until later in his stay that the Tunisian would reconsider the beliefs of the Native Americans. Attending the funeral oration of an Osage chief, Mellimelli heard an affirmation “that God was God, it was his work.” This utterance Mellimelli understood as a declaration of the divine unity. It prompted him to allow these people into the monotheist fold, even to suggest that they were probably originally from Yemen.146 Ultimately, Mellimelli would declare the Native Americans to be “descendants of Arabs” and “his brethren.”147 How he viewed Jefferson, Madison, Plumer, and other white Americans remains a mystery, though the president would express his own views of the Tunisian envoy in a letter of 1806.
MELLIMELLI’S JOURNEY HOME AND JEFFERSON’S LETTER TO THE RULER OF TUNIS, 1806
Secretary Madison had planned Mellimelli’s departure for home from Boston after sojourns in various East Coast cities, among them Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York. James Cathcart, a former prisoner in Algiers and a former U.S. consul, accompanied the ambassador on these travels.148 In May 1806, Jefferson wrote Madison about his anxiety that the ambassador “should go away personally favorable to us,” but his imminent departure left several problems unresolved.149 For one, Jefferson had refused Mellimelli’s persistent demands for tribute in exchange for a peace treaty. (The president was unmoved even by the envoy’s claims that he feared for his life if he returned without substantial American monies.) Jefferson did, however, eventually send back with Mellimelli a U.S.-built ship as compensation for the one seized by the navy, together with a gift of $10,000 to cover the Tunisian ruler’s losses.150 In September 1806, the ambassador finally left Boston so laden with presents that they had to be shipped separately to Tunis by chartered vessel.151 (Room on his personal transport was limited by the large quantity of commodities like coffee and sugar the envoy had acquired in the hope of turning a profit.)152
But the most diplomatically precious thing Mellimelli carried was a letter from Jefferson to Hammuda Bey, the Tunisian ruler, dated June 28, 1806.153 Jefferson’s correspondence with the ruler of Tunis, begun earlier in 1801, provides greater insight into his personal view of the relationship between the two countries. While emphasizing recognition and respect between the two powers, these exchanges also mark the culmination of Jefferson’s references to spiritual common ground in pursuit of a lasting peace.154 Jefferson was not the first president to mention God in his correspondence with Tunis. In 1800, President John Adams had written expressing hope that “Almighty God w
ould cause to reign between our two nations, a peace firm and durable.”155 But Jefferson went further in his personal entreaties for a religiously based amity.
In April 1801, a month after the inauguration, the first letter from the bey arrived at the White House entreating Jefferson to send the presents agreed upon in the peace treaty the previous year, as well as renewing a request for the forty cannon also stipulated, as “real proof of friendship.” In closing Hammuda Bey wrote, “I pray Almighty God to preserve you, and I assure you, Mr. President, of all the extent of my esteem and my most distinguished consideration.”156
Doubtless, Jefferson would have noted the presumption of a shared God and God’s presence blessing relations between the two men. The president duly responded in September, with regrets that the agreed presents had been delayed because of “distance,” but with assurance that they would duly arrive, and a warning of his country’s new problems with Tunis’s neighbor Tripoli. In closing, Jefferson followed the bey’s example in invoking the Almighty, expressing hope for the “continuance of your friendship in return for that which we sincerely bear to you; and pray to God that he may long preserve your life, and have you under the safeguard of his holy keeping.”157
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