1. The polacre Independent, which had brought James Leander Cathcart, the former chief Christian secretary to the dey of Algiers, to America in September, departed Philadelphia for Algiers on 9 December. The Independent carried military stores that the United States owed the dey in accordance with its treaty obligations (see Gazette of the United States, & Philadelphia Daily Advertiser for 9 Dec.; see also GW to the Dey of Algiers, 3 Dec.).

2. The draft of the letter to Hassan Bashaw, dey of Algiers has not been found, but it may have been a draft of GW’s letter to the dey of 3 Dec., which Pickering also signed.

Pickering’s letter of 3 Dec. to Joel Barlow, the acting American consul at Algiers, discussed the imminent sailing of the Independent for Algiers and announced an anticipated shipment of supplies the following spring. Pickering also responded to Barlow’s letters to him of March, April, and May 1796, which announced the promised frigate for the dey of Algiers from the United States (see n.4 below). Pickering assured Barlow that the “President … did not hesitate to confirm your agreement. The frigate is building at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, under the direction of an excellent naval Architect; and I trust she will be ready … early in the next summer.” The estimated cost of the frigate, noted Pickering, was between $90,000 and $100,000. Pickering approved Barlow’s service as acting consul and his decision to give “Consular presents” to the dey, and assured him that “the President entertains a very favourable opinion of the value of your services.” Pickering’s letter also addressed U.S. peace negotiations with Tunis (DNA: RG 59, Diplomatic and Consular Instructions, 1791–1801).

3. Pickering enclosed the letter to GW from the dey of Algiers, dated 5 May 1796, which Cathcart had delivered to Pickering for transmittal to GW (see GW to the Dey of Algiers, 3 Dec., source note and n.1 to that document).

4. Pickering enclosed Barlow’s dispatches Nos. 1–6, written to him from Algiers (all in DNA: RG 59, Despatches from U.S. Consuls in Algiers; see also Knox, Naval Documents, Barbary Wars description begins Dudley W. Knox., ed. Naval Documents Related to the United States Wars with the Barbary Powers. 6 vols. Washington, D.C., 1939–44. description ends , 1:140–55). Dispatch No. 1, dated 18 March 1796, provided statistics about Algiers, specifically its population, military force, marriage customs, and laws. Barlow also discussed the tense relations between Algiers and various European nations, and characterized the dey as “a Man of a most ungovernable temper, passionate, changeable & Unjust.”

In Dispatch No. 2, dated 8 April 1796, Barlow warned Pickering of the “critical Situation” arising from “the delay of the funds” that the United States owed the dey under the 1795 treaty with Algiers. Barlow mentioned the dey’s threats to nullify the treaty and described the efforts to fulfill the treaty obligations. Undoubtedly referencing his and Joseph Donaldson, Jr.’s promise to gift an American-built frigate to the dey, Barlow expressed concern that “the president” might think that he and Donaldson “went too far.” For more on the frigate, see GW to the Dey of Algiers, 3 Dec., and n.5 to that document.

In his dispatch No. 3, dated 17 April 1796, Barlow informed Pickering that David Humphreys, the U.S. minister to Portugal, had sent him “a new commission as a sort of temporary consular Agent.” Barlow depicted the Algerian ruler’s attitudes toward the United States: “[The dey] said he had never treated any nation with so much lenity and forbearance as he had the Americans. … He believed them a good people … he would be their friend, and he was now ready to receive the consular present.” Anticipating his return home and resultant absence from Algiers, Barlow provided Pickering with the following recommendation: “it will be necessary that the person arriving as consul should announce himself as my deputy or secretary, and assume no other character till near the close of the above term [of two years]. If the President and the person appointed should consent to this arrangement there will be no need that I should have any appointment or commission.” This advice sought to eliminate the requirement to provide consular presents. Barlow ended the letter by reporting the capture of thirteen Danish ships by Algerine cruisers.

In dispatch No. 4, dated 18 April 1796, Barlow discussed the need to protect American shipping in the Mediterranean and recommended negotiating commercial treaties with various “States whose ports we are going to frequent,” especially those of the Ottoman Empire. Barlow wrote: “It is likewise to be observed that the Grand Senior [the sultan of the Ottoman Empire] has great influence, though no compleate Soverignty, in the Barbary States. His influence has often been useful to European Powers in disputes with Algiers, and it is pretty sure to be effectual with Tunis & Tripoli. Begining with us by a treaty of Amity & commerce, it is possible he might Afterwards be induced to guarrantee our treaty with Algiers.” Barlow recommended Smyrna, Alexandria (Egypt), and Thessaloniki (Greece) as possible “Consular residences in the Levant,” and cited the commercial importance of Trieste for the United States.

Dispatch No. 5, dated 20 April 1796, presented an estimate of “advantages & expences of maintaining a peace with Barbary.” The estimate accounted for “Money to be received for freight in and for the Mediterranean,” benefits to U.S. trade from “our being our own carriers,” the cost of consular presents, and other items. Barlow added: “Another way in which the account I presume is balanced every year we are at war with Algiers is the advanced price of insurance that the American commerce pays. This brings foreign bottoms into competition with ours in our own commerce, and has an effect to stint the growth of our navigation even in the Atlantic.”

Barlow’s dispatch No. 6 to Pickering, dated 4 May 1796, announced the dey’s decision to send Cathcart to Philadelphia for the purpose of collecting the items “promised as a part of the peace present.” Barlow also enclosed a list of “the articles” agreed upon in the 1795 treaty “for the annual tribute.” Plank and gun powder were among the items listed.

5. The dey of Algiers mentioned passports in his letter to GW of 5 May (see Pickering to GW, 12 Aug., n.4).

In a letter of 5 Dec. to Barlow, Pickering wrote: “An Act of Congress … required that Mediterranean passports should be issued from the Custom Houses on and after the first of September last. The Collectors were accordingly supplied. Our treaty with the Dey … of Algiers requires that the vessels of the United States be furnished with passports within eighteen months from the date of the treaty; the indented margins of our passports will therefore arrive timely, I trust, to supply the Algerine Cruisers. I now transmit herewith one hundred of those margins, with six entire passports, as specimens of their form. The plate for striking them had been finished, and great numbers struck and issued prior to Captain Cathcart’s arrival with the forms you were so kind as to send me. I also send herewith three quires of printed certificates … agreeing with the forms used by the British Consul at Algiers which you forwarded, and to which the margins are annexed for the use of the Cruisers; five quires of certificates for Algerine prize vessels, and two quires relative to the health of the Country. The one hundred margins of the passports will enable you to supply the cruisers of Tunis and Tripoli as well as those of Algiers, should peace be accomplished with those powers” (DNA: RG 59, Diplomatic and Consular Instructions). On 1 June 1796, Congress had passed the “Act providing Passports for the ships and vessels of the United States” (1 Stat. description begins Richard Peters, ed. The Public Statutes at Large of the United States of America, from the Organization of the Government in 1789, to March 3, 1845 . . .. 8 vols. Boston, 1845-67. description ends 489–90).