This is a fascinating account of Thomas Jefferson’s time in Paris as an early US diplomat before the French Revolution: an article written in 1872.

Many striking points of interest and insight.

Such as Benjamin Franklin’s view of Diplomacy:

Benjamin Franklin’s excellence being, that he conducted the intercourse of nations
on the principles which control men of honor and good feeling in their private business, who neither take, nor wish, nor will have an unjust advantage, and look at a point in dispute with their antagonists eyes as well as their own, never insensible to his difficulties and his scruples

Little did Franklin, one of the greatest ever philosophers and practitioners of human rights, imagine the UN Human Rights Council.

And how about the negotiations between Jefferson and John Adams with the Ambassador of Tripoli over how much the USA should pay to ransom some sailors captured by Barbary Pirates?

Different offers were available – at different costs:

  • $660,000:           peace treaties with the four piratical powers
  • 30,000 guineas:  permanent peace with Tripoli
  • 12,500 guineas:  one year peace treaty with Tripoli, renewable annually
  • $10,000:            simple payment for the 20 hostages

Each offer came with a carefully calibrated payment for the Tripoli Ambassador as the negotiating fee.

The two innocents Jefferson and Adams were somewhat stunned by this blackmail approach to international relations:

Disguising their feelings as best they could, they took the liberty to make some inquiries concerning the ground of the pretensions to make war upon nations who had done them no injury.

The ambassador replied: It was written in their Koran, that all nations which had not acknowledged the Prophet were sinners, whom it was the right and duty of the faithful to plunder and enslave; and that every mussulman who was slain in this warfare was sure to go to paradise…

Sounds familiar?