page_title: William Eaton (soldier)
section_title: Tunis (1799–1803)
hierarchical_section_title: William Eaton (soldier) / Tunis (1799–1803)
caption_attribution_description: English: William Eaton, United States Army officer
context_page_description: William Eaton was a United States Army officer and the diplomatic officer Consul General to Tunis. He played an important diplomatic and military role in the First Barbary War between the United States and Tripoli. He led the first foreign United States military victory at the Battle of Derne by capturing the Tripoli subject city of Derne in support of the restoration of the pasha, Hamet Caramelli. William Eaton also gave testimony at the treason trial of former Vice President Aaron Burr.
  He served one term in the General Court of Massachusetts. Eaton died on June 1, 1811 at the age of forty-seven.
  A World War II destroyer USS Eaton in the United States Navy was named after him.
  A Tripoli Monument, in memory of the first American military casualties overseas in the battle at Derne, was sculpted of Italian marble by artist Giovanni Micali in 1806, and transported to the United States by the frigate USS Constitution and placed at the new national capital of Washington, D.C. at the Washington Navy Yard on the East Branch of the Potomac River in 1808.
context_section_description: Eaton's main task in Tunis was to negotiate peace and trade agreements with the bey (governor). During the nineteenth century, European and American merchant ships were under threat by pirates from what was called "The Barbary Coast". The Barbary Coast was made up of several Muslim states, under the rule of the Ottoman Empire, that bordered the Mediterranean Sea in Northern Africa. They acquired revenue from raiding merchant vessels of their cargo, ransoming their crews or selling them into slavery. The European nations opted to pay tribute to the Barbary states to prevent such raids. After the American Revolution, the United States was left without Britain's protection in Mediterranean, thus the Washington and Adams administrations chose paying tribute to the Barbary states as a cost-effective alternative to military action.
  By 1796, the United States was behind in payments to the dey of Algiers. In 1797, Joel Barlow, United States Consul to Algiers, negotiated with the dey and promised him a frigate, at the cost of nearly one million dollars. He then sent a French merchant, Joseph Stephen Famin, to negotiate with the bey of Tunis. An agreement was reached, but Congress would not ratify it. United States President John Adams appointed William Eaton as Consult to Tunis to negotiate more agreeable terms. It took two years to accomplish the task. In that time, as the demands of Algiers and Tripoli increased, Eaton had come to believe that it was better to use military force to secure trade in the region, than to continually pay tribute. He wrote an impassioned letter to the Secretary of State, James Madison, voicing the opinion that, "The more you give the more the Turks will ask for."
  Jack Kelly, of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, wrote in the a 2009 article, Kill The Pirates, that Thomas Jefferson favored an international military intervention to the payment of tribute. Kelly said that Jefferson was unable to convince Europe to take such a course. When he became president of the United States, in 1801, he refused to pay tribute to Tripoli. The Atlantic Monthly (1860), called the belief that the United States was the first to refuse tribute to the Barbary pirates a "patriotic delusion". The article, flouting what it called "the popular view" of events said, "The money question between the President and the pasha was simply one of amount". It went on to say that Jefferson was motivated in his actions toward Tripoli by pressure from powerful merchants. The pasha of Tripoli, Yusef Caramelli (sometimes referred to as Caramelli or Karamanli), responded to the lack of payment by declaring war on the United States.
  Tunis was the closest neighbor to Tripoli and the deposed pasha of Tripoli, Hamet Caramelli, was exiled there. He was, in fact, the elder brother of the reigning pasha, Yusuf Caramelli. William Eaton devised a plan in which the United States would support the restoration of Hamet Caramelli as pasha thereby creating fear of the U.S. within the rest of the Muslim world. He borrowed $22,000 to support the plan, but at this point did not receive the backing of the U.S. government. While the demands for tribute from the bey of Tunis continued, Eaton refused to convey the demands to the United States. He requested that he be recalled, as he felt he could no longer negotiate with the bey. In addition, a U.S. fleet, under the command of Commodore Richard Morris, had recently captured a Tunisian vessel that was headed for Tripoli. Morris came ashore in Tunis to visit Eaton and was arrested for Eaton's debt of $22,000. Eaton borrowed the money to pay the debt from the French Consul-General. At that point the bey ordered him to leave Tunis, which he did in the company of Morris. Hamet Caramelli, having failed at his attempt to regain Tripoli, fled to Egypt.
caption: William Eaton, from Naval Documents[12]
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