George Washington Papers
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https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-21-02-0330

To George Washington from Timothy Pickering, 20 February 1797

From Timothy Pickering

[Philadelphia] Feby 20. 1797.

The President will read with pleasure the postscript of the inclosed letter from Robert Montgomery our Consul at Alicante, which I have received this day—excepting what relates to the capture of another American vessel by Tripo⟨li⟩ concerning which however Mr Barlow’s words are consoling. The last sentence broken by the seal I read thus—“I have taken now what I think will be effectual measures with these states above.”1

T. Pickering

ALS, DNA: RG 59, Miscellaneous Letters.

1The letter to Pickering from Robert Montgomery, the U.S. consul at Alicante, Spain, has not been identified.

The letter to Pickering from Joel Barlow, consul to Algiers, has not been identified. Barlow had written Pickering about the affairs of the Barbary States in a letter of 18 Oct. 1796 (see Pickering to GW, 31 Dec., and n.1; see also DNA: RG 59, Despatches from U.S. Consuls in Algiers). Barlow’s correspondence for September and October 1796 also had included news about Tripoli’s capture of U.S. vessels, such as the Betsy and the brig Sophia (see Allen, Barbary Corsairs description begins Gardner W. Allen. Our Navy and the Barbary Corsairs. Boston, New York, and Chicago, 1905. description ends , 59). The Sophia, which carried funds to fulfill the U.S.-Algerine treaty of 1795, had been released (see Pickering to GW, 23 Jan. 1797, and n.1). Barlow enclosed a copy of the 4 Nov. 1796 treaty between the United States and Tripoli with his letter to Pickering of 13 Jan. 1797, though Pickering had not yet received that letter (see DNA: RG 59, Despatches from U.S. Consuls in Algiers; see also Miller, Treaties description begins Hunter Miller, ed. Treaties and Other International Acts of the United States of America. Vol. 2, 1776-1818. Washington, D.C., 1931. description ends , 349–85).

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