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| Stephen Girard |
The following conversation first appeared in my book: Stephen Girard, America's Colonial Olympian
1750-1821. Stephen Girard is on his deathbed. His fever is dangerously high; he has been hallucinating.
Girard: (in his
bedroom) Hannah, Hannah. (His black
slave of many years comes quickly into his room.)
Hannah: What is
it, Mr. Girard?
Girard: Please
bring some fresh water. (Hannah hurries out of the room and returns immediately
with a pitcher of cool water.) Has anybody come to call this morning?
Hannah: Not a
soul. You’ve been asleep for hours. Do you want me to tidy the room now or
shall I come back later?
Girard: I’ll ring
when I’m ready. (Hannah leaves the room.)
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| Thomas Jefferson |
Voice: I don’t
like to be kept waiting and for that matter I don’t know why I’m here.
Girard: Unless
you show yourself, I won’t know who you are.
Voice: Having
lots of house guests, are you?
Girard: My mind
is being invaded with many thoughts, mostly unresolved concerns.
Jefferson: I’m
Thomas Jefferson. (Reveals himself) This will be a short visit because you and
I have no unresolved concerns.
Girard: I didn’t
ask you to come, but since you’re here, let me say briefly that my political
tendencies were for the Republican Democratic Party.
Jefferson: How
nice for you.
Girard: However,
when Washington was in office, I detected more zeal in your efforts for
changing the grip the Federalists had on our country.
Jefferson: Come
on, Girard. You are a merchant. Your only interest is to receive the maximum protection
from the Federal Government while paying as little as possible in taxes.
Girard: I’d like
to have that maxim engraved over the door of my office. It sounds like an
honest motto for all businessmen. The maxim you should hang over your door
might be: “I promised everything to everybody while campaigning, just try to
make me keep my promises now.”
Jefferson: You
sound like a bitter old man who will shortly leave this world. If there is
nothing else, I’ll be …
Girard: And I
liked the younger Jefferson who had fire in his belly, who was not afraid to
criticize Washington for declaring neutrality for the United States, after
using the armed forces of France to do his dirty work. You must have been angry
as hell because you resigned your position as Secretary of State for that
reason.
Jefferson: I
resigned because I could not work for a Federalist government that had as its
principal advisor Alexander Hamilton. Is there anything else?
Girard: Of course
there is something else. You resigned because of the Hamilton thorn in your
side. I have had to live in a nation that stupidly alienated France that might
have protected our ships against the British and pirates until we could develop
a navy of our own.
Jefferson: Your
criticisms are just. I have spent much of my political life trying to resolve
that problem. My focus was to build an international coalition against
unconventional enemies like the Barbary Pirates of North Africa.
Girard: Before
the United States became independent of Great Britain, American merchant
ships and their crews were protected from the pirates of Tripoli, Morocco,
Tunis and Algiers by the navy of Great Britain.
Jefferson: Yes,
and as you already mentioned, during the Revolution, the ships of the United
States were protected by the 1778 alliance with France, requiring France to
“protect vessels and effects against all violence, insults, attacks, or
depredations on the part of the Princes and States of Barbary or their
subjects.”
Girard: I suppose
the new United States Government did not count on having to pay the pirates for
ransom of ships and crews and funds for relief of prisoners.
Jefferson: Being
a sovereign country meant having many new costs. As early as 1784, Congress
began to follow the tradition of the other European countries and appropriated
$80,000 as tribute to the Barbary States. I was a minister in Europe with John
Adams at the time when we began our negotiations.
Girard: As you
know my experience was on the side, that of merchant ships. Not only did we
have to contend with the pirates of Barbary, we also had Great Britain seizing
our ships and taking our crews. We merchants wanted to be reimbursed for our
losses. Eighty thousand dollars was not going to be enough to set aside.
Jefferson:
Exactly right! Trouble came in 1785. The Algerians captured two American ships.
The Dey of Algiers notified us that the ships, their crews and passengers would
be held for a ransom of about $60,000.
As minister to France, I was opposed to the payment of tribute. I put
together a plan for the following interested partners: Portugal, Naples, the
two Sicilies, Venice, Malta, Denmark and Sweden. They all agreed to form an
association. Because England and France
were reluctant, the plan did not get started.
Girard: While
these countries were trying to find a solution to piracy, ships were being
taken and crews were being imprisoned.
Jefferson: I
still believed that force was the only way to solve the problem. I wrote to
James Monroe in Congress saying we needed to use the rod for a change. In a
letter to the President of Yale College in December of 1786, I said it would be
easier to raise ships and men to fight these pirates into reason, than money to
bribe them.
Girard: It must
have angered you that the United States ended up paying the Dey of Algiers
almost a million dollars in cash to ransom a frigate and over a hundred
sailors.
Jefferson: To cut
this story short, it was by force that we got the attention of the Barbary
States. However, it was not until 1805, when an American fleet under Commodore
John Rogers and a land force raised by an American naval agent to the Barbary
powers, Captain William Eaton, threatened to capture Tripoli and install the
brother of Tripoli's pasha on the throne. It was then that a treaty brought an end to the
hostilities. In fact, it was not until the second war with Algiers, in 1815,
that naval victories by Commodores William Bainbridge and Stephen Decatur led
to treaties ending all tribute payments by the United States. European nations
continued annual payments until the 1830s. However, international piracy in
Atlantic and Mediterranean waters declined during this time under pressure from
the Euro-American nations, that no longer viewed pirate states as mere
annoyances during peacetime and potential allies during war.
Girard: I did my
part by getting the American people to understand the plight of our merchant
navy. I held meetings, wrote letters to my agents abroad and to our members in
Congress. I even entered politics.
Jefferson: Thank
you for letting me attend this gathering. I didn’t mean to stay so long or talk
so much. I do wish you well in whatever life has in store for you.
Girard: Thank you
for coming Mister President.
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