Jefferson and Adam's letter to Congress re Barbary Muslims' jihad 1786
U.S. Enterprize capturing the Ottoman Tripolitan vessel Tripoli , 1 August 1801. The first war On 28 March 1786 United States ambassadors to France and England Thomas Jefferson and John Adams addressed the following letter to Congress, arising out of a meeting the previous year with Tripoli's ambassador to Britain Sidi Haji Abdul Rahman Adja over the capture by Islamic Barbary coast pirates of two vessels the Maria and Dauphin and enslavement of their crews: We took the liberty to make some inquiries concerning the grounds of their [Barbary’s] pretentions to make war upon nations who had done them no injury, and observed that we considered all mankind as our friends who had done us no wrong, nor had given us any provocation. The ambassador answered us that it was founded on the laws of their Prophet, that it was written in their Koran, that all nations who should not have acknowledged their authority were sinners, that it was their right and duty to make war upon them where...
