October 22

[On October 22, 1785, while serving as the U.S. Minister to France, I wrote a confidential letter to the Count de Aranda (Spain's ambassador to France). I asked him for special passports for American messengers traveling to Morocco and Algiers. Pirates from those areas were stealing our merchant ships and enslaving our crews for huge ransoms. We needed to negotiate for their release. To keep our plans completely quiet, I asked Spain not to search our bags. This protected about 1,250 guineas' worth of watches and rings we brought to use as secret bribes. Years later, as U.S. President, I decided to stop buying peace with bribes. Instead, I started the First Barbary War. In 1801, the ruler of Tripoli demanded a huge $225,000 payment from us. I refused to pay it. Instead, I sent the U.S. Navy and Marines to the Mediterranean Sea to blockade pirate ports and protect our ships. The pirates did attack us again in 1807, and President James Madison had to defeat them for good in 1815. However, my military strategy forced a peace treaty in 1805. This successfully ended Tripoli's demands while I was President.]

The friendly dispositions which the Court of Madrid have been pleased to show towards us in our affairs relative to the Barbary Powers, induce me to trouble you with an application on that subject. We are about sending persons to Morocco and Algiers to form arrangements with those powers. They will go by the way of Madrid. I ask the favor of your Excellency's passports for them. It would increase their value much if they could protect those persons from having their baggage searched. The one going to Morocco takes with him about a thousand guineas worth of watches, rings, and other things of that nature: he who goes to Algiers takes about a fourth of that value. I pledge myself that these, with their necessary clothes, will constitute the whole of their baggage, and that these are neither to be sold nor left in Spain. The duties to which these things would be subject are of no consideration with us. It is to avoid the delays, the difficulties, and even the losses which may accrue from the examination of small and precious things on the road. Two separate passports will be acceptable: the one for Thomas Barclay, and David S. Franks, and their servants; the other for John Lambe and Randall, and their servants. We propose to keep these transactions as much as we can from the eyes of the public.