The letter was composed by the dragoman and forwarded to the United States, but Eaton was allowed to remain.

Disgusted with the shameful position of our affairs in the Mediterranean, Eaton requested Mr. Madison to recall him, unless more active operations against the enemy should be resolved upon.  “I can no longer talk of resistance and coercion,” he wrote, “without exciting a grimace of contempt and ridicule ...  The operations of our squadron this season have done less than the last to aid my efforts.  Government may as well send out Quaker meeting-houses to float about this sea as frigates with ------ in command ...  If further concessions are to be made here, I desire I may not be the medium through whom they shall be presented.  Our presents show the Bey our wealth and our weakness and stimulate his avarice to new demands.”

The display of latent force by the United States fleet, from which our Government had expected so much, increased the insolence of the Bey of Tunis to such a point that Eaton was obliged to withdraw from his post, and a new war seemed inevitable.  The Americans had declared Tripoli blockaded; but, as their ships were seldom on the coast, little attention was paid to them.  It happened, however, that a Tunisian vessel, bound for Tripoli, was captured when attempting to enter the harbor, and declared a prize.  Shortly after, Commodore Morris anchored off Tunis and landed to visit the Consul.  The Bey, who held the correct doctrine on the subject of paper blockades, pronounced the seizure illegal and demanded restitution.  During his stay on shore, the Commodore had several interviews with the Bey’s commercial agent in relation to this prize question.  The behavior of that official was so offensive that the Commodore determined to go on board his ship without making the usual farewell visit at Court.  As he was stepping into his boat from the mole, he was arrested by the commercial agent for a debt of twenty-two thousand dollars, borrowed by Eaton to assist Hamet Caramanli in his expedition against Tripoli.  Eaton remonstrated indignantly.  He alone was responsible for the debt; he had given abundant security, and was willing to pay handsomely for further forbearance.  In vain; the agent would take nothing but the money.  Eaton hurried to the palace to ask the Bey if this arrest was by his order.  The Bey declined to answer or to interfere.  There was no help for it; the Commodore was caught.  To obtain permission to embark, he was obliged to get the money from the French Consul-General, and to promise restitution of the captured vessel and cargo.  As soon as he was at liberty, the Commodore, accompanied by Eaton, went to the palace to protest against this breach of national hospitality and insult to the flag.  Eaton’s remarks were so distasteful to the Bey that he ordered him again to quit his court,—­this time peremptorily,—­adding, that the United States must send him a Consul “with a disposition more congenial to Barbary interests.”