"Well, the President in his next message to Congress suggested that we must have a navy, and he gave his reasons for the suggestion. I disremember 'em exactly; but the substance of 'em was that the United States would never have any rank among nations if she had the reputation of weakness. We would be sure to be insulted if we hadn't the strength to hit back, and the only way we could have peace was to let everybody know we were always ready to fight.
"Congress took the words of the President in good part," Haines continued, "and passed a bill authorizing the building of six frigates, four of them forty-four gunners, and the two thirty-six gunners; and that's the way we owe our navy to the Algerine pirates. Would you believe it, there were a good many members of Congress who opposed building the navy, and thought it would be better and cheaper to make a trade with the Dey of Algiers by paying him ransom and tribute money instead of spending our money on ships. They made a clause in the bill appropriating a million dollars toward buying a peace with the Dey, and in case they did so, the building of the ships was to be stopped.
"And that's just what happened. In 1795 we made a treaty of peace with this sea-robber which cost the government a million of dollars, as I've already told you about. They stopped work on the ships, but they were pretty well along by that time; and when, in 1797, we got into trouble with France and things looked very squally, it didn't take a great while to finish the ships and get them ready for sea."
"How did the trouble with France come about? Please tell me."
"As near as I can remember," said Haines, "this was the way of it,—
"France and England were at war, and the French government took offense at a treaty we had made with Great Britain. They issued a secret order authorizing French ships-of-war to capture neutral ships in the West Indies, if they were found carrying supplies to British ports. The French cruisers, under this authority, began to seize American ships, and treated their crews with great cruelty. We had felt very friendly to the French down to that time, owing to the way they helped us during the Revolution, but they acted so badly that we didn't feel so well afterward. Next they issued a decree which almost amounted to a declaration of war, and I don't believe you can guess what it was."
"I have read somewhere," I said, "that the French not only authorized the capture of American ships trading between the United States and Great Britain and its colonies, but declared further that any American found on board of a hostile ship, though placed there without his consent by impressment, should be hanged as a pirate! Wasn't that it?"
"Yes, it was," said Haines; "just think of it! British ships were constantly impressing American seamen. Suppose an English war-ship with impressed Americans on board should be captured by a French cruiser; those Americans were liable to be hanged as pirates! Did you ever hear of anything so outrageous?"
"Certainly I never did," I answered; "it's difficult to believe that such an order was possible. Did the United States declare war against France after that?"