the Americans to pay tribute. Captain Bainbridge, who commanded the
frigate _George Washington_, for refusing to convey an Algerian
ambassador to the court of the sultan at Constantinople, was threatened
by the haughty governor with imprisonment.

"You pay me tribute, by which you become my slave, and therefore I have
a right to order you as I think proper," said the dey.

Bainbridge was forced to obey the orders of the Barbarian.

[Illustration: Stephen Decatur.]

The Americans resolved to humble the Algerians, and a fleet was sent to
Tripoli in 1803. The frigate _Philadelphia_, while reconnoitering the
harbor, struck on a rock and was captured by the Tripolitans, who made
her officers prisoners of war and her crew slaves.

Lieutenant Decatur, on February 3, 1804, by a stratagem, got alongside
the _Philadelphia_ with seventy-four brave young sailors like himself
and carried the ship by the board after a terrible hand-to-hand
conflict. The Tripolitans were defeated, and the _Philadelphia_ was
burned. The American seamen continued to bombard Tripoli and blockaded
their ports, until the terrified Bashaw made a treaty of peace.

While the Americans were winning laurels on the Mediterranean, the
infant republic was growing in political and moral strength. During Mr.
Jefferson's first term, one State (Ohio) and two Territories (Indiana
and Illinois) had been formed out of the great Northwestern Territory.
Ohio was organized as an independent territory in the year 1800, and in
the fall of 1802, it was admitted into the Union as a State. Long before