had “neither seen or heard”: Captain Thomas Truxtun to Secretary of the Navy, October 27, 1798, QW I:566–68.
Although the earliest naval patrols: Albion and Pope, Sea Lanes in Wartime: The American Experience, 1775–1942, p. 70.
“It seems in vain”: Secretary of the Navy to President Adams, August 25, 1798, QW I:336.
“By keeping up”: Secretary of the Navy to President Adams, July 30, 1798, QW I:255.
“From information which cannot”: Captain Thomas Truxtun to Secretary of the Navy, October 27, 1798, QW I:566–68.
If Truxtun could confirm: Secretary of the Navy to Captain Thomas Truxtun, January 16, 1799, QW II:243.
“as far Leeward as”: Secretary of the Navy to Captain Thomas Truxtun, December 8, 1798, QW II:73.
“Nothing is said”: Palmer, Stoddert’s War, p. 84.
“We bade farewell”: Shaw, Short sketch of the life of Elijah Shaw, who served 21 years in the United States Navy, p. 7.
“gave Directions”: Captain Thomas Truxtun’s Journal, January 10, 1799, QW II:228.
Thirteen days out of Norfolk: Captain Thomas Truxtun’s Journal, January 13–17, 1799, QW II:237–53.
The Retaliation had been commanded: “The United States Naval Chronicle,” 1824, pp. 127–29, in QW II:42.
“You have paid”: Captain Thomas Truxtun to Midshipman John Dent, January 29, 1799, QW II:291–92.
“set up the most lamentable”: Letter from an officer on board the United States, QW II:304.
“Very squally”: Captain Thomas Truxtun’s Journal, February 8, 1799, QW II:322.
“I take her”: Captain Thomas Truxtun’s Journal, February 9, 1799, QW II:328.
Truxtun ordered his signal officers: Ferguson, Truxtun of the Constellation, p. 161.
“such a cracking”: John Hoxse quoted in Palmer, Stoddert’s War, p. 99.
“like a race horse”: Ibid.
the “sole source”: Captain Barreaut to General Desfourneaux, February 17, 1799, NA RG 45.
“One fellow I was obliged”: “Extract of a Letter from Mr. Andrew Sterrett,” QW II:334 (emphasis in the original)
According to an account: Claypoole’s American Daily Advertiser, March 26, 1799, in NA RG 45.
“should certainly have sent”: Rodgers quoted in Palmer, Stoddert’s War, p. 100.
Barreaut had to admit: Captain Barreaut to General Desfourneaux, February 17, 1799, NA RG 45.
“Although I would not”: Lieutenant John Rodgers to Secretary of the Navy, February 15, 1799, QW II:336–37.
Barreaut and his first lieutenant were sent: Palmer, Stoddert’s War, p. 101.
“I send you a list”: Letter from David Porter to his father, reprinted in Claypoole’s American Daily Advertiser, March 16, 1799, NA RG 45.
It was deemed too dangerous: “The United States Naval Chronicle,” QW II: 327–28.
“The french Captain”: Captain Thomas Truxtun to Secretary of the Navy, February 9, 1799, QW II:326–27.
“untill ordered to the contrary”: Captain Truxtun to General Desfourneaux, February 19, 1799, QW II:378–79.
“You have united”: Captain Barreaut to Captain Thomas Truxtun, February 14, 1799, QW II:354.
Truxtun ordered Rodgers: Captain Thomas Truxtun to Lieutenant John Rodgers, May 20, 1799, QW III:217.
“brave Truxtun cock’d”: Ferguson, Truxtun of the Constellation, p. 171.
“Captain Truxtun”: Department of the Navy, “The Reestablishment of the Navy, 1787–1801,” Naval Historical Center Web site: http://www.history.navy.mil.
“I wish all the other officers”: President John Adams to Secretary of the Navy, April 22, 1799, QW III:84.
“who shall execute”: Rules and Regulations for the Government of the U.S. Navy, QW VII:462–73.
“There is one thing”: Captain Alexander Murray to Secretary Stoddert, July 27, 1799, QW III: 551–52.
“The sum fixed on”: Secretary Stoddert to Captain Truxtun, July 2, 1799, QW III:453–54.
an estimate of $84,500: Joshua Humphreys to Secretary Stoddert, July 4, 1799, JH letter book, PHS.
Stoddert also considered: Secretary Stoddert to Captain Truxtun, July 9, 1799, QW III:480.
His share: See McKee, A Gentlemanly and Honorable Profession, Table 32, p. 493.
“one of those strokes”: AA quoted in McCullough, John Adams, p. 507.
“Floating Batteries”: Anderson, “John Adams, the Navy, and the Quasi-War with France,” American Neptune 30(2) (1970): 120.
“At present there is no”: McCullough, John Adams, p. 513.
Adams said he “thought Hamilton”: Ibid, p. 522.
“I have always cried Ships!”: JA to Francis Adrian Van der Kemp, April 25, 1808, quoted in Anderson, “John Adams, the Navy, and the Quasi-War with France,” p. 119.
“Always disposed”: Senate Journal, 5th Cong., 3rd Sess., February 18, 1799.
“Had the foulest heart”: Ellis, Founding Brothers, p. 192.
“like a flock of frightened”: AA to JA, ibid., p. 192.
“The only negociation”: Ferguson, Truxtun of the Constellation, p. 170.
“Nor do I think”: John Adams, Works, VIII:651.
“Mr. Stoddert is a man”: Wolcott quoted in Palmer, Stoddert’s War, p. 125.
by “zeal & spirit”: Ibid., p. 128.
“I think it will be best”: Secretary of the Navy to Captain John Barry, May 13, 1799, QW III:177.
The success of the navy: Palmer, Stoddert’s War, pp. 130–31.
“This avarice of Rank”: Secretary Stoddert to Alexander Hamilton, July 19, 1799, QW III:516.
“We shall never get”: JA to Secretary Stoddert, July 5, 1799, QW III:466.
“After a detention”: JA to Secretary Stoddert, July 23, 1799, QW III:528–32.
Stoddert urged him: Ferguson, Truxtun of the Constellation, p. 179.
“It as little becomes”: Captain Truxtun to Officers of Constellation, August 9, 1799, QW IV:51.
“I must confess”: Ferguson, Truxtun of the Constellation, p. 185.
“On the ocean is our field”: Address of Captain Truxtun to ship’s company, June 19, 1799, QW III:366–67.
“You cannot be too”: Secretary Stoddert to Captain Truxtun, November 11, 1800, QW IV:377–80.
He ordered the Constellation’s carpenter: Palmer, Stoddert’s War, p. 183.
“in excellent trim”: Captain Truxtun to Secretary of the Navy, February 3, 1800, QW V:159.
“she was a heavy”: Captain Thomas Truxtun’s Journal, February 1, 1800, QW V:160.
“every inch of canvas”: Captain Thomas Truxtun’s Journal, February 2, 1800, QW V:160–61.
Evening came on: “Letter from a gentleman on board the frigate Constellation,” February 7, 1800, QW V:164–66.
“to demand the surrender”: Captain Thomas Truxtun’s Journal, February 2, 1800, QW V:160–61.
At a critical point in the action: “Letter from a gentleman on board the frigate Constellation,” February 7, 1800, QW V:164–66.
“the most perfect wreck”: Surgeon Isaac Henry to Hugh Henry, February 1–2, 1800, QW V:162.
six “Amputations of Limbs”: Isaac Henry to Hugh Henry, February 11, 1800, QW V:208.
“It is hard to conjecture”: Captain Truxtun to Secretary Stoddert, February 12, 1800, QW V:209–10.
she had made for: Account of Captain Pitot, February 1–2, 1800, QW V:166–68.
“in a most distressed”: Benjamin Hammell Phillips to Captain Truxtun, February 6, 1800, QW V:197.
ratlines “were cut up so”: Captain Thomas Baker to Secretary of the Navy, February 8, 1800, QW V:196–97.
“perforated with round”: “Letter from a gentleman in Curacao,” February 6, 1800, QW V:198.
“hideous transaction”: Quoted in DeConde, The Quasi War, p. 210.
“Whence comes”: Quoted in Ferguson, Truxtun of the Constellation, p. 200.
“laying in the trough”: Captain James Sever to Secretary Stoddert, January 11, 1
800, QW, V:62–63.
“I, sir, am the best”: Ibid.
“we should have reserved”: Lieutenant John Cordis to Secretary Stoddert, April 2, 1800, QW, V:65–66.
“The Service is to me”: First Lieutenant Benjamin Strother to Major Commandant William Burrows, February 24, 1800, QW, V:64–65.
“You soon shall be separated”: Secretary Stoddert to Midshipman John Duboise, April 25, 1800, QW V:449.
“shot his antagonist”: Second Lieutenant Samuel Llewellyn to Major Commandant William W. Burrows, April 25, 1800, QW V:450.
“The Congress is full”: Secretary Stoddert to Josiah Fox, March 20, 1800, QW V:334–35.
“You will proceed”: Captain Truxtun to Josiah Fox, April 2, 1800, QW V:373–74.
“assume all the authority”: Secretary Stoddert to Captain Truxtun, April 16, 1800, QW V:421.
a “tyrant”: Palmer, Stoddert’s War, p. 211.
signed an order: Sentence of Court-Martial in the case of Mutineers on board the frigate Congress, May 15, 1800, QW V:520–21.
“to put an End”: Captain Truxtun to Secretary Stoddert, April 27, 1800, QW V:451–52.
“We unanimously acquit”: Court of Inquiry, April 29, 1800, QW V:452–54.
“flogged with a cat”: Sentence of Court-Martial in the case of Mutineers on board the frigate Congress, May 15, 1800, QW V:520–21.
“As her sails”: Norfolk Herald, May 24, 1800, QW V:545.
“I fear some difficulty”: Truxtun to Charles Biddle, May 22, 1800, QW V:544.
“sorry to say”: Captain Murray to Secretary Stoddert, October 12, 1800, QW VI:468–69.
“Regiments are costly”: Quoted in Ellis, Founding Brothers, p. 193.
“artful designing men”: McCullough, John Adams, p. 529.
“eloquence and vehemence”: Ibid., p. 531.
“I heard him”: Chernow, Alexander Hamilton, p. 598.
“The President has resolved”: McCullough, John Adams, p. 531.
“Let me therefore”: Secretary Stoddert to Captain Barry, June 17, 1799, QW III:349.
“it will be proper”: Secretary Stoddert to Captain Barry, September 20, 1799, QW IV:211.
“the most ample and satisfactory”: Oliver Ellsworth and W. R. Davie to the Secretary of State, November 1, 1799, QW IV:346.
“the terrible and Mortiferous”: Thomas Bulkeley, U.S. Consul, Portugal, to Captain Barry, December 18, 1799, QW IV:553.
but on Christmas Eve: William Smith, U.S. Minister to Portugal, to Secretary of State, February 1, 1800, QW V:178.
the United States made landfall: Palmer, Stoddert’s War, p. 221.
a small fishing vessel: William Smith to Secretary of State, February 1, 1800, QW V:178.
“the most splendid occasion”: Elkins and McKitrick, The Age of Federalism, p. 689.
a “family quarrel”: McCullough, John Adams, p. 552.
“steered the vessel”: Ellis, Founding Brothers, p. 205.
“The counsel which Themistocles”: JA to Captain Truxtun, November 30, 1802, QW V:174–75.
PART TWO: TO THE SHORES OF TRIPOLI
“The Bible would be cast”: Quoted at http://www.hfac.uh.edu/gl/us9.htm.
“the refuse of Europe”: McCullough, John Adams, p. 543.
“a true estimate”: Ellis, American Sphinx, p. 180.
“mud, shavings, boards”: Margaret Bayard Smith to “her sister,” October 5, 1800, quoted at http://www.geocities.com/bobarnebeck/swamp1800.html.
the room “was so crowded”: Margaret Bayard Smith to Miss Susan B. Smith, March 4, 1801, Smith, The First Forty Years of Washington Society in the Family Letters of Margaret Bayard Smith, pp. 25–27.
He would continue: Margaret Bayard Smith to “her sister,” October 5, 1800, quoted at http://www.geocities.com/bobarnebeck/swamp1800.html.
“straight as a gun-barrel”: Edmund Bacon in The Jefferson Reader, ed. Rosenberger, p. 67.
“an ambitious and violent demagogue”: Margaret Bayard Smith in her notebook, The First Forty Years, pp. 5–7.
“in a dark night”: Quoted in Young, The Washington Community 1800–1828, p. 46.
treasured “scientific instruments”: Bernard Mayo in The Jefferson Reader, ed. Rosenberger, p. 308.
“We find this a very agreeable”: TJ to T. M. Randolph, June 4, 1801, quoted in Malone, Jefferson: The President, p. 42.
“got to a steady”: TJ to T. M. Randolph, November 16, 1801, quoted in Cunningham, The Process of Government Under Jefferson, p. 35.
“You saw at a glance”: Thomas Jefferson Randolph in The Jefferson Reader, ed. Rosenberger, pp. 65–66.
a “system of larger and lesser”: Young, The Washington Community, p. 3.
Visitors compared the District: Ibid., pp. 41–53.
there were only 109 houses: Ibid., p. 41.
“Figure to yourself”: John Randolph quoted in ibid., p. 75.
“The gentlemen in the rear”: T. J. Randolph in The Jefferson Reader, ed. Rosenberger, p. 65.
“Republicanism is so rare”: TJ to Robert R. Livingston, December 14, 1800, TJP.
“we shall have to advertise”: Ellis, American Sphinx, p. 188.
a “moral duty”: TJ to General Samuel Smith, March 9, 1801, TJP.
“To fill that office”: Quoted in Adams, The Life of Albert Gallatin, p. 300.
“the English career”: TJ to Gallatin, October 11, 1809, WTJ, IX:264.
In his first report: Adams, The Life of Albert Gallatin, pp. 292–93.
“hostile to the genius”: Balinky, Albert Gallatin: Fiscal Theories and Policies, p. 55.
“if this Administration”: Adams, The Life of Albert Gallatin, pp. 294–95.
“reform the waste”: TJ to Walter Jones, March 31, 1801, TJ Miscellany, Manuscript Division, LOC, quoted in Cunningham, The Process of Government Under Jefferson, p. 316.
“We are hunting out”: TJ to T. M. Randolph, June 18, 1801, quoted in ibid., p. 22.
“agencies upon agencies”: TJ to James Monroe, June 20, 1801, quoted in ibid.
In the first full year: ASP, Mis. vol. 1, p. 260, transmitted to Congress by President; Register of Employees for 1802. See also Young, The Washington Community, p. 29.
At the height of the Quasi War: See McKee, A Gentlemanly and Honorable Profession, pp. 413–18.
“a most painful Duty”: Secretary of the Navy to Captain Alexander Murray, March 27, 1801, QW VII:158.
“It directs him”: Samuel Smith for acting Secretary of the Navy Dearborn to Captain Sever, June 18, 1801, QW VII:255.
“Permit me here”: Samuel Smith for acting Secretary of Dearborn the Navy to Lieutenant William Flagg, April 15, 1801, QW VII:195.
“I shall be really chagrined”: TJ to Samuel Smith, April 17, 1801, TJP.
“Besides the safety”: Message of the President of the United States to Congress, December 8, 1801, ASP, Naval Affairs, vol. 1, p. 78.
The annual cost to maintain each ship: Secretary of the Navy, “Naval establishment and its expenses,” to the House of Representatives, January 15, 1801, ASP, Naval Affairs, vol. 1, p. 6.
“I have frequently”: William Whitehead quoted in letter to Secretary of the Navy from Captain Thomas Tingey, December 5, 1801, QW VII:306.
“no unnecessary expence”: General Samuel Smith for acting Secretary of the Navy to Captain Alexander Murray, April 11, 1801, QW VII:186.
“before timely assistance”: Captain Alexander Murray to Secretary of the Navy, April 12, 1801, QW VII:189.
Murray wrote Smith to say: Captain Alexander Murray to General Samuel Smith, May 18, 1801, QW VII:227.
might “be entirely rotten”: TJ to Caesar A. Rodney, December 31, 1802, TJP.
“Almost every other”: Quoted in Mapp, TJ: A Strange Case of Mistaken Identity, p. 2.
“If I could not go”: TJ quoted in Ellis, Founding Brothers, p. 67.
“How is it that we hear”: Samuel Johnson, “Taxation Not Tyranny,” in The Yale Edition of the Works of Samuel Johnson (1775; New Haven: Yal
e University Press, 1977).
“1. Justice is in favor”: TJ to JA, July 11, 1786, in Cappon, ed., The Adams-Jefferson Letters, I:142–43.
“such a naval force”: TJ to Elbridge Gerry, January 26, in Cunningham, The Process of Government Under Jefferson, p. 128.
“running navigation mad”: TJ to Dr. Joseph Priestley, January 18, 1800, TJP.
“Merchants have no country”: TJ Jefferson to Horatio C. Spafford, March 17, 1814, TJP.
“The cultivators of the earth”: “Answers to questions propounded by M. De Meunier,” January 24, 1786, WTJ, vol. V, p. 11.
“to preserve an equality of right”: TJ to John Jay, August 23, 1785, TJP.
“no pretence of any periodical”: “Treaty of Peace and Friendship between the United States of America and the Bey and Subjects of Tripoli of Barbary,” BW I:177.
“for the Peace we had paid him”: James L. Cathcart, U.S. Consul, Tripoli, to Secretary of State Pro Tempore, October 18, 1800, BW I:382.
“the meanest of our Citizens”: Ibid.
“We were shown to”: William Eaton quoted in Whipple, To the Shores of Tripoli, p. 55.
“A most Superb Gun”: “Presents to Tunis,” BW II:86.
“all the military and naval”: Bey of Tunis to President Thomas Jefferson, September 8, 1802, BW II:269.
Pleading lack of funds: Richard O’Brien to William Smith, January 10, 1801, BW I:410.
“You pay me tribute”: Whipple, To the Shores of Tripoli, p. 56.
“I hope I shall never”: Bainbridge to Secretary Stoddert, quoted in Lossing, Pictorial Field-Book of the War of 1812, chap. VI.
“I am an enemy”: TJ to JM, August 28, 1801, TJP.
Jefferson put two questions: Jefferson notes quoted in Cunningham, The Process of Government Under Jefferson, pp. 48–49.
“to superintend the safety”: Tucker, Dawn Like Thunder: The Barbary Wars and the Birth of the U.S. Navy, p. 135.
“an authority equally competent”: Ferguson, Truxtun of the Constellation, p. 215.
“peace can afford”: Ibid., p. 216.
“the finest frigate”: Ibid., p. 217.
In a three-hour battle: Whipple, To the Shores of Tripoli, p. 80.
to “subdue, seize”: “An act for the protection of the commerce and seamen of the United States, against the Tripolitan cruisers,” passed by the seventh Congress, February 6, 1802, BW II:51–52.