"
Eaton answered, angrily, that the Bey might write himself to the
President, if he wanted a frigate. For his part, he would never transmit
so outrageous a demand. "Then," retorted the Bey, "I will send you home,
and the letter with you."
The letter was composed by the dragoman and forwarded to the United
States, but Eaton was allowed to remain.
Disgusted with the shameful position of our affairs in the
Mediterranean, Eaton requested Mr. Madison to recall him, unless more
active operations against the enemy should be resolved upon. "I can no
longer talk of resistance and coercion," he wrote, "without exciting a
grimace of contempt and ridicule ... The operations of our squadron this
season have done less than the last to aid my efforts. Government may as
well send out Quaker meeting-houses to float about this sea as frigates
with ------ in command ... If further concessions are to be made here, I
desire I may not be the medium through whom they shall be presented. Our
presents show the Bey our wealth and our weakness and stimulate his
avarice to new demands."
The display of latent force by the United States fleet, from which our
Government had expected so much, increased the insolence of the Bey of
Tunis to such a point that Eaton was obliged to withdraw from his post,
and a new war seemed inevitable.
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