...Congress, though, thought differently, and in the summer of 1786, it instructed Jefferson to join Adams in London for one more try at negotiating with Tripoli's envoy, 'Abd al-Rahman. The pair reiterated America's desire for peace with all of the Barbary states, but 'Abd al-Rahman simply repeated his demand for $1 million and then, in a speech that will sound familiar to most Americans today, he proceeded to shock these founding fathers:

"[I]t was …written in the Koran, that all Nations who should not have acknowledged their [the Muslims'] authority were sinners, that it was their right and duty to make war upon whoever they could be found, and to make Slaves of all they could take as prisoners, and that every Mussulman who should be slain in battle was sure to go to Paradise." (From Jefferson's report to Congress).

On the basis of these remarks, Adams concluded that there was no use in negotiating with the North Africans, but neither could the United States resist them. "We ought not to fight them [the Barbary States] at all unless we determine to fight them forever. This though, I fear, is too rugged for our people to bear." Adams' solution, then, was to offer a small bribe to the pirates and hope that it satisfied them. But not Jefferson -- he still insisted that the American people would fight, if only given the option...

...Eaton proposed landing 1,000 marines in Tunis and conquering the capital, but Secretary of State Madison turned that down. Eaton then came up with a solution for Tripoli. He would support a coup by the exiled brother of the pasha and install a pro-American government in Libya -- essentially a regime change. Madison rejected that, too, saying the United States had a policy of non-interference in the internal affairs of other states. Eaton would not give up, though. The pirates, he predicted, would soon start raiding U.S. shores, abducting women and young boys. Americans might as well start dressing as slaves.

Resolving to act alone, he found the exiled brother, Hamid, in Egypt, and together with nine U.S. Marines and a mercenary force of 400, did what no military commander since antiquity had even contemplated. He marched 500 miles over the sun-hammered Western desert to attack Tripoli's second-largest city, Darna, by surprise. It was a brutal pitched battle, and Eaton was severely wounded, but he took the city and prepared to march on Tripoli itself. The pasha, though, sensing the danger, capitulated. He released the Philadelphia prisoners and hastily concluded a peace treaty with Jefferson.

In December 1805, Jefferson informed Congress that "the states on the coast of Barbary seem generally disposed at present to respect our peace and friendship." In fact, it would take another naval expedition to humble Barbary. In 1815, Stephen Decatur led a fleet into the harbors of Tripoli, Tunis and Algiers, and presented each with a choice between "powder and balls" or treaties foreswearing piracy. All three regencies signed...