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The Barbary Treaties 1786-1816
Tripoli 1805 : Convention of February 23, 1805

Art 1 Art 2 Art 3 Art 4 Art 5 Art 6 Art 7
Art 8 Art 9 Art 10 Art 11 Art 12 Art 13 Art 14
Additional Secret Article

God Is Infinite.

ARTICLE 1.

There shall be a firm and perpetual peace and free intercourse between the Government of the United States of America and His Highness Hamet Caramanly Bashaw, the legitimate sovereign of the kingdom of Tripoli, and between the citizens of the one and the subjects of the other.

ART. 2.

The Government of the United States shall use their utmost exertions SO comports with their own honor and interest, their subsisting treaties, and the acknowledged laws of nations, to re-establish the said Hamet Bashaw in the possession of his sovereignty of Tripoli, against the pretensions of Joseph Bashaw, who obtained said sovereignty by treason, and who now holds it by usurpation, and who is engaged in actual war against the United States.

ART. 3.

The United States shall, as circumstances may require, in addition to the operations they are carrying on by sea, furnish the said Hamet Bashaw, on loan, supplies of cash, ammunition, and provisions, and if necessity require, debarkations of troops, also to aid and give effect to the operations of the said Hamet Bashaw, by land, against the common enemy.

ART. 4.

In consideration of which friendly offices, once rendered effectual, His Highness Hamet Caramanly Bashaw engages, on his part, to release to the commander-in-chief of the forces of the United States, in the Mediterranean, without ransom, all American prisoners who are, or may hereafter be, in the hands of the usurper, said Joseph Bashaw.

ART. 5.

In order to indemnify the United States against all expense they have or shall incur, in carrying into execution their engagements, expressed in the second and third articles of this convention, the said Hamet Bashaw transfers and consigns to the United States the tribute stipulated by the last treaties of His Majesty the King of Denmark, His Majesty the King of Sweden, and the Batavian republic, as the condition of peace with the regency of Tripoli, until such time as said expense shall be reimbursed.

ART. 6.

In order to carry into full effect the stipulation expressed in the preceding article, said Hamet Bashaw pledges his faith and honor faithfully to observe and fulfil the treaties now subsisting between the regency of Tripoli and their Majesties the Kings of Denmark and Sweden, and with the Batavian republic.

ART. 7.

In consideration of the friendly disposition of His Majesty the King of the Two Sicilies towards the American squadron, His Highness Hamet Bashaw invites His said Sicilian Majesty to renew their ancient friendship, and proffers him a peace on the footing of that to be definitively concluded with the United States of America, in the fullest extent of its privileges according to the tenor of this convention.

ART. 8.

The better to give effect to the operations to be carried on by land in the prosecution of the plan, and the attainment of the object pointed out by this convention, William Eaton, a citizen of the United States, now in Egypt, shall be recognised as general and commander-in-chief of the land forces which are or may be called into service against the common enemy; and His said Highness Hamet Bashaw engages that his own subjects shall respect and obey him as such.

ART. 9.

His Highness, said Hamet Bashaw, grants full amnesty and perpetual oblivion towards the conduct of all such of his subjects

as may have been seduced by the usurper to abandon his cause, and who are disposed to return to their proper allegiance.

ART. 10.

In case of future war between the contracting parties, captives on each side shall be treated as prisoners of war, and not as slaves, and shall be entitled to reciprocal and equal exchange, man for man, and grade for grade; and in no case shall a ransom be demanded for prisoners of war, nor a tribute required as the condition of peace, neither on the one part nor on the other. An prisoners on both sides shall be given up at the conclusion of peace.

ART. 11.

The American consular flag in Tripoli shall for ever be a sacred asylum to an persons who shall desire to take refuge under it, except for the crimes of treason and murder.

ART. 12.

In case of the faithful observance and fulfilment on the part of His Highness, said Hamet Bashaw, of the agreements and obligations herein stipulated, the said commander-in-chief of the American forces in the Mediterranean engages to leave said Hamet Bashaw in the peaceable possession of the city and regency of Tripoli, without dismantling its batteries.

ART. 13.

Any article suitable to be introduced in a definitive treaty of peace between the contracting parties, which may not be comprised in this convention, shall be reciprocally on the footing of the treaties subsisting with the most favored nations.

ART. 14.

This convention shall be submitted to the President of the United States for his ratification. In the mean time there shall be no suspense in its operations.

Done at Alexandria, in Egypt, February 23, 1805, and signed by said liamet Bashaw, for himself and successors, and by William Eaton, on the part of the United States.

ADDITIONAL ARTICLE, SECRET.

His Highness Hamet Bashaw will use his utmost exertions to cause to surrender to the commander-in-chief of the American forces in the Mediterranean the usurper Joseph Bashaw, together with his family, and chief admiral called Maurad Dais, alias Peter Lisle, to be held by the Government of the United States as hostages, and as a guaranty of the faithful observance of the stipulations entered into by convention of the 23d February, 1805, with the United States, provided they do not escape by flight.

The text of that convention is also printed in Prentiss, The Life of the Late Glen. William Eaton, 297-301. For some account of the military operations of Eaton and the march from Alexandria to Derne, see ibid., 295-392, and also Allen, Our Navy and the Barbary Corsairs, Chapter XIV.

A Senate committee report of March 17, 1806, which is severely critical of the course of Colonel Lear, is in Compilation of Reports of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, VIII, 17-20.



Source:
Treaties and Other International Acts of the United States of America.
Edited by Hunter Miller
Volume 2
Documents 1-40 : 1776-1818
Washington : Government Printing Office, 1931.
127 Wall Street, New Haven, CT 06511.