18011776 Club
Tripoli cuts down the American flagstaff; the Pasha declares war without a word on paper
Yusuf Karamanli sends men to the consulate in the customary Barbary fashion, and Jefferson, who has argued against tribute for fifteen years, now has his war.
On May 10, 1801, Yusuf Karamanli — the Pasha of Tripoli — declared war on the United States not with a written proclamation but by sending men to cut down the flagstaff in front of the American consulate. It was the customary Barbary manner, and Jefferson understood it perfectly. The new president, who had spent fifteen years arguing against paying tribute to North African potentates, finally had the war he had long believed was inevitable — and a navy just barely capable of fighting it…
