title to the presents will be a motive to its continuance,--to admit
that the Bashaw shall receive in the first instance, including the
consular present, the sum of $20,000, and at the rate afterwards of
$8,000 or $10,000 a year ... The presents, whatever the amount or
purpose of them, (except the consular present, which, as usual, may
consist of jewelry, cloth, etc.,) must be made in money and not in
stores, to be biennial rather than annual; _and the arrangement of the
presents is to form no part of the public treaty, if a private promise
and understanding can be substituted._"

After notifying Cathcart of his appointment to Tunis, the Secretary
directs him to evade the thirty-six-gun frigate, and to offer the Bey
ten thousand dollars a year for peace, to be arranged in the same
underhand way.

Tripoli refused the money; it was not enough. The Bey of Tunis rejected
both the offer and the Consul. He wrote to Mr. Jefferson that he
considered some of Cathcart's expressions insulting, and that he
insisted upon the thirty-six-gun frigate. Mr. Jefferson answered on the
27th of January, 1804, after he knew of the insult to Morris and of the
expulsion of Eaton. Beginning with watery generalities about "mutual
friendships and the interests arising out of them," he regretted that
there should be any misconception of his motives on the part of the Bey.
"Such being our regard for you, it is with peculiar concern I learn from
your letter that Mr. Cathcart, whom I had chosen from a confidence in
his integrity, experience, and good dispositions, has so conducted
himself as to incur your displeasure. In doing this, be assured he has
gone against the letter and spirit of his instructions, which were, that
his deportment should be such as to make known my esteem and respect for
your character both personal and public, and to cultivate your