"TO THE SHORES OF – WHERE?"

“From the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli…”

Most of us know why the Marine Hymn speaks of the halls of Montezuma. It refers to the Mexican War (1846-48) in which the Marine and other American soldiers, led by General Winfield Scott fought a fierce battle from Vera Cruz to Mexico City and stormed Chapultepec Castle.

But what about the shores of Tripoli? That’s another story.

It goes back nearly 1,400 years to the beginning of Muslim Jihad, but let’s start with 1785. Thomas Jefferson and John Adams were serving as U.S. envoys to Europe, and they met with the representative of Dey (ruler) Muhammad of Tripoli, one of the Barbary states on the Mediterranean coast of Africa. The Barbary states (Morocco, Tripoli, and Tunis, had a nasty habit of attacking the ships of the Christian nations of Europe, seizing the cargos and enslaving the crews and passengers. From the 1500s to the 1800s, Barbary pirates enslaved over a million Europeans. Women and boys were forced into harems as sex slaves; men were condemned to toil as galley slaves, mine workers, or other heavy labor throughout North Africa and the Ottoman Empire. In his book Christian Slaves, Muslim Masters: White Slavery in the Mediterranean, the Barbary Coast, and Italy, 1500-1800 (2003), Dr. Robert Davis details this largely-forgotten chapter of history and suggests the actual number could be higher. Many European countries paid annual tribute to the Barbary states, in return for which the pirates would leave their ships alone.

These seizures included American ships, including one sent by the Pilgrims in 1625 laden with furs and other cargo to pay their debts to the London Merchant Adventurers who had financed their colony. These seizures increased after America became independent and lost the protection of the Royal British Navy. In 1784 Tripoli declared war on the new United States and began seizing American ships. So in London Jefferson and Adams met with Tripoli’s Ambassador and asked why Tripoli would treat a new nation like the United States as an enemy. As Jefferson and Adams wrote to John Jay March 28 1786,

The Ambassador answered us that it was founded on the Laws of their Prophet, that it was written in their Koran, that all nations who should not have acknowledged their authority were sinners, that it was their right and duty to make war upon them wherever they could be found, and to make slaves of all they could take as Prisoners, and that every Musselman who should be slain in battle was sure to go to Paradise.

The fledgling United States grudgingly paid tribute for the privilege of being left alone, but it was not enough to satisfy the Barbary States, and Americans increasingly objected. In 1794, in response to these seizures, Congress authorized the construction of the first six ships of the U.S.

In 1801 the Pasha (lord) of Tripoli increased his demands. Jefferson cut off tribute, Tripoli declared war, and in 1802 Jefferson sent the U.S. Navy and Marines to Tripoli. The U.S. Philadelphia ran aground, and its crew was imprisoned for two years. Commodore Edward Preble sent Lieutenant Stephen Decatur and his crew on a secret mission into Tripoli. The bombardment of Tripoli commenced, and U.S. Counsel William Eaton led a contingent of Marines on a land march toward Tripoli. Fearing defeat, in 1805 the Tripolitans negotiated a peace settlement that included ransom for American hostages but no tribute.

Continued conflict led to the Second Barbary War of 1815 in which now-Commodore Stephen Decatur led a Navy squadron that defeated the Algerian fleet and forced a negotiated peace with Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli.

But as the American sailors and marines returned home in 1805, one man in particular hailed them as heroes. This young lawyer and soldier was a devout Christian, a poet, and a composer of Christian hymns such as “Lord, with Glowing Heart I’d Praise Thee” (Trinity Hymnal #80). Using the tune “To Anacreon in Heaven,” he composed a song to honor America’s heroes, and nine years later he would write another tribute to American valor, “The Star Spangled Banner,” using the same tune. By now you know I’m talking about Francis Scott Key. I urge you to sing “When the Warrior Returns” to the tune of our National Anthem:

WHEN the warrior returns, from the battle afar,

To the home and the country he nobly defended,

O! warm be the welcome to gladden his ear,

And loud be the joy that his perils are ended:

In the full tide of song let his fame roll along,

To the feast-flowing board let us gratefully throng,

Where, mixed with the olive, the laurel shall wave,

And form a bright wreath for the brows of the brave.

Columbians! a band of your brothers behold,

Who claim the reward of your hearts’ warm emotion,

When your cause, when your honor, urged onward the bold,

In vain frowned the desert, in vain raged the ocean:

To a far distant shore, to the battle’s wild roar,

They rushed, your fair fame and your rights to secure:

Then, mixed with the olive, the laurel shall wave,

And form a bright wreath for the brows of the brave.

In the conflict resistless, each toil they endured,

‘Till their foes fled dismayed from the war’s desolation:

And pale beamed the Crescent, its splendor obscured

By the light of the Star Spangled flag of our nation.

Where each radiant star gleamed a meteor of war,

And the turbaned heads bowed to its terrible glare,

Now, mixed with the olive, the laurel shall wave,

And form a bright wreath for the brows of the brave.

Our fathers, who stand on the summit of fame,

Shall exultingly hear of their sons the proud story:

How their young bosoms glow’d with the patriot flame,

How they fought, how they fell, in the blaze of their glory.

How triumphant they rode o’er the wondering flood,

And stained the blue waters with infidel blood;

How, mixed with the olive, the laurel did wave,

And formed a bright wreath for the brows of the brave.

Then welcome the warrior returned from afar

To the home and the country he nobly defended:

Let the thanks due to valor now gladden his ear,

And loud be the joy that his perils are ended.

In the full tide of song let his fame roll along,

To the feast-flowing board let us gratefully throng,

Where, mixed with the olive, the laurel shall wave,

And form a bright wreath for the brows of the brave.

Colonel Eidsmoe serves as Professor of Constitutional Law for the Oak Brook College of Law & Government Policy (obcl.edu), as Senior Counsel for the Foundation for Moral Law (morallaw.org), and as Pastor of Woodland Presbyterian Church of Notasulga, AL (woodlandpca.org). He may be contacted for speaking engagements at eidsmoeja@juno.com.

THE VIEWS OF SUBMITTED EDITORIALS MAY NOT BE THE EXPRESS VIEWS OF THE ALABAMA GAZETTE.