Page 28 - NS-2 Textbook

THE GROWTH OF AMERICAN SEA POWER 21

maritime differences in Jay's Treaty, vduch the two coun- Commodore Thomas Truxtun was one of the Ameri-
tries signed in 1797. cans who worked hard to profit from the lessons learned
TIle French were oUh'aged by this agreement, and from the Royal Navy. In his ship the COllstellatioll, Trux-
they increased their raids on U.S. ships. In one year tun fought the two most famous battles of the Quasi-War.
French privateers in the West Indies and along the U.S. The first took place in February 1799, when the COllstella-
Atlantic coast seized over 300 U.S. merchant ships. In the tioll encountered the French frigate Illsurgellte while on
fall of 1797 President Jolm Adams sent tlu'ee representa- patrol in the Caribbean. After a brief fight the COllstella-
tives to Paris to hy to work out a settlement. The French lion holed Insurgellte's hull so many times that her cap-
wanted these men to pay a huge bribe to begin the talks, tain had to SlUrender. In the second battle a year latel~ the
but they refused. Americans everywhere responded to Constellatioll fought the French frigate Vellgeance to a
fhe French demand wifh the slogan "Millions for de- draw after a five-holU battle off Guadeloupe.
fense, but not one cent for tribute!" Finally, in October 1800, after more than two years of
TIle French XYZ affait~ as this came to be called, put undeclared war, a peace treaty was signed between
Congress in the mood to finish building the six frigates France and the United States. One of the provisions in
authorized in 1794. TIle President, forty-four guns, and the treaty was a very unpopular clause canceling U.S.
two thirty-six-glll ships, the Congress and the Chesapeake, claims against the French for attacking u.s. merchant
were soon launched, along \vith SOlne smaller vessels. ships. Partly because of all the uproar the treaty caused,
On 30 April 1798 Congress established the Navy Depart- Thomas Jefferson was able to defeat JOM Adams in the
ment. The following month, it allowed U.S. vessels to presidential election of 1800.
seize armed French ships that were found cruising in During the war, the U.S. fleet had grown rapidly.
U.S. coastal waters. The United States had started an un- u.s. exports had risen to more than $200 million, and the
declared naval ,val~ the Quasi-War \J\Tith France. income from imports was more than $22 million. The
Navy had spent only $6 million to protect this commerce
from the French. It was clear that the Navy benefited
QUASI-WAR WITH FRANCE, 1798-1800
New England shipping, but it also benefited the econ-
As commander in chief, President Adams made sure that omy of the entire nation.
U.S. seamen were well paid and well fed. Therefore, the
Navy had plenty of recruits from the merchant marine
WAR WITH TRIPOLI AND THE BARBARY
(commercially owned and operated shipping). Many of
PIRATES, 1801-1805
the fifty ships that eventually made up the wartime
Navy also came from the merchant marine. As part of his campaign for the presidential election of
Adams had men and ships. Now he needed a leader. 1800, Jefferson had promised to reduce government
He chose a merchant shipper from Maryland, Benjamin spending. The Navy cost the country over $2 million
Stoddert, to be his first Secretary of fhe Navy. Stoddert every year, so after he was elected, making the Navy
immediately ordered his warships to patrol the Atlantic smaller was one way for Jefferson to keep his promise.
coast. TIle first American prize was the Croyable. Cap- He began to sell off smaller naval ships.
tured in July 1798, this privateer was renamed the Retal- TIlen the Barbary pirates began to cause more trou-
iatioll and put in service in the U.S. Navy. ble. When the frigate GeO/ge Washington arrived in Al-
TIlat same month, Congress extended its authoriza- giers with a tribute payment in September 1800, the dey
tion and allowed U.S. ships to capture armed French of Algiers (the Algerian leader) ordered Captain William
ships on the high seas. Stoddert was then able to send a Bainbridge to take passengers and the tribute payment to
series of expeditions to the West hldies, where most of the sultan in Constantinople. When Bainbridge refused,
the French privateers were based. TIle first nlissioTI, led the dey aimed the guns of the fortress at the frigate and
by Commodore JaM Barry, captured only two privateers forced Bainbridge to carry out his orders. After this inci-
because most of the French ships were able to escape into dent, other Barbary states increased their' tribute de-
shallow water where the u.s. vessels could not follow. In mands. Jefferson refused to pay them. In May 1801, when
the second expedition, which arrived in the fall of 1798, the United States did not meet the tribute demands of the
Lieutenant William Bainbridge was defeated in the Retal- pasha (ruler) of Tripoli, he declared war on the United
iatio11, 'which was returned to French hands. States.
After the U.S. Navy cleared U.s. coastal waters, Stod- That smnmer, the twelve-gIll schooner USS Enter-
dert sent twenty-one ships in four squadrons to the West prise blockaded the port of Tripoli for eighteen days and
Indies. There, U.s. vessels were allowed to use British then left for Malta. On the way she met and defeated a
bases and had the support of the Royal Navy. U.S. offi- Tripolitan crulser, the Tripoli. Other U.S. warships con-
cers and seamen learned many useful things as they voyed U.S. merchantmen through the Mediterranean.
served \vith ,vhat 'was then the finest navy in the world. But by the end of SUllilller, most of the crews' enlist-