From Thomas Jefferson to Samuel Barron, 31 May 1804
To Samuel Barron
To Commodore Samuel Barron commanding a Squadron of armed Vessels belonging to the United States:
Given at the City of Washington in the District of Columbia this 31 day of May, in the year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred & four, and in the 28th. year of our Independence.—
Whereas it is declared by the Act entitled “An Act for the protection of the Commerce and Seamen of the United States, against the Tripolitan Cruisers,” That it shall be lawful fully to equip, officer, man and employ, such of the armed Vessels of the United States, as may be judged requisite by the President of the United States, for protecting effectually the Commerce and Seamen thereof, on the Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean and adjoining seas: and also, that it shall be lawful for the President of the United States, to instruct the Commanders of the respective public Vessels, to subdue, seize, and make prize, of all vessels, goods, and effects, belonging to the Bey of Tripoli or to his Subjects.
Therefore, and in pursuance of the said statute, you are hereby authorized and directed to subdue, seize, and make prize, of all vessels, goods, and effects belonging to the Bey of Tripoli or to his Subjects, and to bring or send the same into port, to be proceeded against & distributed according to Law.—
And in virtue of the Act of Congress entitled “An Act further to protect the Commerce and Seamen of the United States against the Barbary Powers,” you will consider yourself hereby further authorized and directed to proceed against any other of the Barbary powers which may commit hostilities against The United States, in the same manner and to the same extent as you have been authorized and directed to proceed against the Vessels, goods, and Effects belonging to the Bashaw of Tripoli or to his Subjects
Th: Jefferson
President of the United States of America.
FC (Lb in DNA: RG 45, Letterbook, 1799-1807); at head of text: “Thomas Jefferson President of the United States of America”; at foot of text: “By Command of the President of the United States of America,” signed by Robert Smith.
Samuel Barron (d. 1810) of Virginia, the son of a mariner and the elder brother of Captain James Barron, received a captain’s commission in the U.S. Navy in 1798. Retained under the Peace Establishment Act of 1801, Barron commanded the Philadelphia from 1801 to 1802. TJ placed him in charge of the Mediterranean squadron in 1804, but chronic illness plagued Barron and he spent much of his tenure as commodore on shore. Returning to the United States in 1805, he oversaw the construction of gunboats in Virginia until 1807. He was appointed superintendent of the navy yard at Norfolk shortly before his death (, s.v. “Barron, James”; , Register, 3-4; Ian W. Toll, Six Frigates: The Epic History of the Founding of the U.S. Navy [New York, 2006], 225, 259-60; Norfolk Gazette and Publick Ledger, 31 Oct., 2 Nov. 1810).
For the acts cited in TJ’s instructions to Barron, passed by Congress in 1802 and 1804, see Vol. 36:605 and TJ to the Senate and the House of Representatives, 20 Mch.