Dft (DLC); heavily emended; the most significant changes are recorded in notes below. FC (Lb in DNA: RG 59, Credences); in a clerk’s hand; at head of text: “Thomas Jefferson, President of the United States of America; To the Most illustrious and honored Bey of Tripoli of Barbary, whom God preserve”; lacks dateline at head (see note 18 below); substantive variations are recorded in notes below. Tr (DNA: RG 233, PM, 7th Cong., 1st sess.); in the same clerk’s hand; wording follows FC. PrC (DNA: RG 46, EPFR, 7th Cong., 1st sess.); a letter-pressed copy of the Tr; faint, portions overwritten. TJ transmitted this letter to Congress among the papers supplementing his 8 Dec. 1801 message (ASP description begins American State Papers: Documents, Legislative and Executive, of the Congress of the United States, Washington, D.C., 1832–61, 38 vols. description ends , Foreign Relations, 2:348–9; JHR description begins Journal of the House of Representatives of the United States, Washington, D.C., 1826, 9 vols. description ends , 4:24). Not recorded in SJL.

Yusuf (ca. 1773–1838) was a younger son of the ruling Qaramanli family, but he displaced his father and brothers by intrigue and force of arms and, with assistance from Tunis, expelled another aspirant to power who had been approved by the Ottoman sultanate. From 1795 he ruled Tripoli and attempted to consolidate and expand the country’s economic wherewithal and political power. The sultan sanctioned Yusuf’s rule, accorded Tripoli the same status in the empire as Tunis and Algeria, and helped strengthen its navy. Yusuf, however, resisted Ottoman domination. He expanded Tripoli’s authority into the North African interior and supported the French campaign in Egypt. Later in his reign, after the United States and European nations ceased to pay tribute money and he was forced to renounce the enslavement of their seafarers, his imposition of high taxes fostered internal discord that led to his abdication (Kola Folayan, Tripoli during the Reign of Yusuf Pasha Qaramanli [Ile-Ife, Nigeria, 1979], 4, 7–21, 25–7, 47–58, 71–2, 128–34, 144–6; Ronald Bruce St. John, Historical Dictionary of Libya, 2d ed. [Metuchen, N.J., 1991], 63–4; Seton Dearden, ed., Letters Written during a Ten Years’ Residence at the Court of Tripoli: Published from the Originals in the Possession of the Family of the Late Richard Tully, Esq., the British Consul [London, 1957], 241).

James Leander Cathcart was the American consul in Tripoli. Yusuf had expressed dissatisfaction to Cathcart over the terms of the treaty between the United States and Tripoli, which had been signed in 1796 and ratified the following year. As conveyed to Congress, the letter that Yusuf addressed to John Adams on 25 May 1800 said in part, after expressions of goodwill: “We, on our part, will correspond with you, with equal friendship, as well in words as deeds. But if only flattering words are meant, without performance, every one will act as he finds convenient. We beg a speedy answer, without neglect of time, as a delay on your part cannot but be prejudicial to your interests. In the mean time, we wish you happiness.” The bey subsequently communicated an intention to declare war in the spring of 1801 if the United States did not undertake new negotiations (ASP description begins American State Papers: Documents, Legislative and Executive, of the Congress of the United States, Washington, D.C., 1832–61, 38 vols. description ends , Foreign Relations, 2:352; Joseph Barnes to TJ, 19 Mch. 1801).

First object of our sollicitude: on 21 Mch., Levi Lincoln wrote to William Eaton, the consul at Tunis: “The new Administration which has commenced under Mr. Jefferson has not yet been able to decide upon the interests of the United States in relation to Barbary. We are however impressed with the necessity of paying immediate attention to the menacing demands of Tripoli. It is not improbable that a part of our naval force may be speedily sent into the Mediterranean to guard against exigences or by a demonstration of our power to reduce the capricious Sovereigns of Barbary to a sense of justice, thro’ the medium of their fears” (in DNA: RG 59, DCI).