Appendix 1:**

Treaty of Tripoli

 

The Treaty of Tripoli of 1797 should be explained when discussing the role of religion in Washington’s career.  It is alleged that Washington signed this Treaty, Article 11 of which declares that

. . . the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion,--as it has in itself no character of enmity against the law, religion or tranquility of Muselmen.1

The Treaty was negotiated in 1796 between U.S. officials and the Dey of Tripoli and the Dey of Algiers to secure safe passage for American ships through waters near the Barbary Coast of North Africa.

Incomplete historical information and translation problems have left many unanswered questions about the Treaty of Tripoli.  The following has been verified:

1-The copy of the treaty recently circulated which bears Washington’s signature is a fraud.  Washington never signed the Treaty of Tripoli.  The treaty never reached the President’s desk until after March 1797 when John Adams was President.  The treaty was first signed by Jussuf Bashaw Mahomet, the Dey of Tripoli, on Novermber 4, 1796.  Then it was sent to Algiers, where Hassan Bashaw, the Dey of Algiers, signed it January 3, 1797.  It was then sent to Lisbon, Portugal, where U.S. Minister to Portugal David Humphries signed it February 10, 1797.  Then it was sent to the United States, where the Senate approved it on June 7, 1797.  President Adams signed it June 10.2

2-The Treaty was translated into English sometime in January or February 1797, probably by an Algerian court official.  The U.S. official in charge of the signing in Algiers, Joel Barlow, did not know Arabic, but signed his name to a statement, “The foregoing is a literal translation of the writing in Arabic on the following page.”3  Barlow’s “translation” removed many cultural and religious references and in some instances changed the meaning to give the Dey of Algiers more authority and enforcement powers than was intended.  For example, Barlow’s translation of Article 12 reads:

In case of any dispute arising from a violation of any of the articles of this treaty no appeal shall be made to arms, nor shall war be declared on any pretext whatsoever.  But if the Consul residing at the place where the dispute shall happen shall not be able to settle the same, an amicable reference shall be made to the mutual friend of the parties, the Dey of Algiers, the parties hereby engaging to abide by his decision.  And he by virtue of his signature to this treaty engages for himself and successors to declare the justice of the case according to the true interpretation of the treaty, and to use all the means in his power to enforce the observance of the same.4 

Barlow’s translation differs greatly from a more literal translation of Article 12 made in 1930 by  Dr. C. Snouck Hurgronje of Leiden.

Praise  be to God!  Declaration of the twelfth article.  If there arises a disturbance between us both sides, and it becomes a serious dispute, and the American Consul is not able to make clear (settle) his affair, and (then) the affair shall remain suspended between them both, between the Pashna of Tripoli, may God strengthen him, in the well-protected Algiers, has taken cognizance of the matter.  We shall accept whatever decision he enjoins on us, and we shall agree with this condition and his seal (i.e., the decision sealed by him); may God make it all permanent love and a good conclusion between us in the beginning and the end, by his grace and favor, amen!5

These inconsistent translations reveal the confusion which existed concerning the treaty.

3-Translation interpretation is possibly the source of confusion on Article 11.  There is evidence that Article 11 was not actually part of the Treaty of Tripoli.  Consider the following entry from Treaties and Other International Agreements of the United States of America, 1776-1949:

Most extraordinary (and wholly unexplained) is the fact that Article 11 of the Barlow translation with its famous phrase, “the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion,” does not exist at all.  There is no Article 11.  The Arabic text which is between Articles 10 and 12 is in form a letter crude and flamboyant and withal quite unimportant from the Dey of Algiers to the Pashna of Tripoli.  How that script came to be written and to be regarded, as in the Barlow translation, as Article 11 of the treaty as there written, ia a mystery and seemingly must remain so.  Nothing in the diplomatic correspondence of the time throws any light whatsoever on the point.” (emphasis added)

One explanation is that the Dey of Algiers wrote this note on the Treaty to mollify certain concerns of the Pashna of Tripoli about entering into a Treaty with an “infidel” (non-Islamic) nation.  The Algerian court official translating the document translated everything on the page without regard to its nature or source.  It is also possible that American foreign service officials, eager to conclude a treaty, allowed the Barbary officials to continue under that impression.

4-Piracy continued despite the Treaty; the United Stats went to war with Tripoli in 1801.  A new treat with Tripoli, which does not contain the phrase in question, was accepted on April 17, 1806.7

While this information does not completely resolve the mystery of the Treaty of Tripoli, it certainly establishes that the Treaty cannot be used as evidence that Washington—or Adams, for that matter—did not believe this nation was founded on Christian principles.

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1Treaty of Tripoli, cited by Loren P. Breth, The American Theory of Church and State (Gainesville, Florida: University of Florida Press, 1958), p. 74.

2Ray W. Irwin, The Diplomatic Relations of the United States with Barbary Powers, 1776-1949 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1931), p. 84; cited by John W. Whitehead, “The Treaty of Tripoli,” The Rutherford Institute, Vol. 2, No. 1 (January/February, 1985, 1986), pp. 10-11.

3Charles I.  Bevans, Treaties and Other International Agreements of the United States of America, 1776-1949 (Department of State, 1974), XI: 1073-1074; cited by Whitehead, ibid.

4Barlow’s translation, Treaty of Tripoli, Article 12; reprinted in Bevans, Treaties, XI: 1072; cited by Whitehead, ibid.

5Hurgronje’s translation, Treaty of Tripoli, Article 12; reprinted in Bevans, Treaties, XI: 1078; cited by Whitehead, ibid.

6Cited by Bevans, Treaties, XI: 1070; cited by Whitehead, ibid.

7Leo Pfeiffer, Church, State and Freedom (Boston: Beacon Press, 1953), p. 211.

 

**This entire article is from:

John Eidsmoe, “Appendix 1: Treaty of Tripoli”, Christianity and the Constitution:  The Faith of the Founding Fathers (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1987) pp. 413-15.