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Special Message

January 13, 1806

To the Senate of the United States:

According to the request of the Senate of December 30, I now lay before them the correspondence of the naval commanders Barron and Rodgers and of Mr. Eaton, late consul at Tunis, respecting the progress of the war with Tripoli, antecedent to the treaty with the Bey and Regency of Tripoli, and respecting the negotiations for the same, and the commission and instructions of Mr. Eaton, with such other correspondence in possession of the offices as I suppose may be useful to the Senate in their deliberations upon the said treaty.

The instructions which were given to Mr. Lear, the consul-general at Algiers, respecting the negotiations for the said treaty accompanied the treaty and the message concerning the same, and are now with them in possession of the Senate.

So much of these papers has been extracted and communicated to the House of Representatives as relates to the principles of the cooperation between the United States and Hamet Caramalli, which is the subject of a joint message to both Houses of Congress bearing equal date with the present, and as those now communicated to the Senate comprehend the whole of that matter, I request that they may be considered as comprising the documents stated in that message as accompanying it. Being mostly originals or sole copies, a return of them is requested at the convenience of the Senate.

We have no letter from Mr. Lear respecting Tripoline affairs of later date than that of July 5, which was transmitted to the Senate with the treaty, nor, consequently, any later information what steps have been taken to carry into effect the stipulation for the delivery of the wife and children of the brother of the reigning Bashaw of Tripoli.

TH: JEFFERSON.

Thomas Jefferson, Special Message Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/204634

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