The Foreign Service Journal, September 2022

54 SEPTEMBER 2022 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL Paying ransom to free U.S. prisoners from the Barbary States was not new for the United States. sailors and interest paid on the funds he had borrowed to pay expenses. The State Department rejected the claim. Noah then left Cadiz for Paris; he did not arrive in Tunis to take up his post until December 1814. He did not do too well. In the few short months he was there, he got involved in several disputes with the authorities, engaged in private business activi- ties and expended official funds to lead a life of luxury, residing, as he admitted, in “one of the best and largest [houses] in Tunis.” Secretary Monroe and President Madison learned of how Noah had apparently botched the special mission, contravened his instructions and expended funds for sailors who may not have been Americans, from former Consul General Tobias Lear. Lear had received a letter to that effect from the Swedish consul in Tunis. Another letter sent to the State Department by the cap- tain of the Edwin , still in captivity in Algiers, corroborated Lear’s report. The president and Secretary were incensed and decided that Noah ought to be relieved of his post. b In early 1815, the War of 1812 ended with the Treaty of Ghent, and on March 2, 1815, the U.S. declared war on Algiers. Two war- ship squadrons were readied to sail to the Mediterranean, and one of these, under the command of Captain Stephen Decatur, left New York on May 20. Decatur was successful in his mission. He sailed into Algiers’ harbor, obtained the release of all Ameri- cans without ransom and negotiated a favorable peace treaty. Decatur had also carried a letter from Secretary Monroe, which he delivered to Noah. Since the copy in the State Depart- ment archives has disappeared, we have to rely on Noah’s transcription and publication in his book Travels in England, France, Spain, and the Barbary States for its contents: “At the time of your appointment, as Consul at Tunis, it was not known that the Religion which you profess would form any obstacle to the exercise of your Consular functions. Recent information, however, on which entire reliance may be placed, proves that it would produce a very unfavourable effect. In consequence of which, the President has deemed it expedient to revoke your commission.” Thus, ostensibly, Noah had been given the post in the first place in part for being a Jew and was now being fired for being a Jew. This did not make sense, and Secretary Monroe disclosed the real reasons to Noah in Washington in early 1816. According to Noah, he was told that he had been relieved, among other reasons, for “going beyond orders, employing a most obnoxious character [Keene], expending the public money unnecessarily.” What was left unsaid at the interview was the fact that both Madison and Monroe had been upset that Noah had disclosed the involvement of the government in the ransom efforts, engaged in private business and was suspected of collab- orating with Keene in his efforts to obtain land grants in Florida. b Noah did not take his firing kindly. He wrote a 128-page pam- phlet, Correspondence and Documents Relative to the Attempt to Negotiate for the Release of the American Captives at Algiers; Including Remarks on Our Relations with That Regency , which he sent Monroe, telling him he intended to give it to Congress. Monroe was not concerned, but Noah’s friends dissuaded him from publishing the document because it could harm U.S. foreign relations and could also be taken as a personal attack on Monroe, then running for president. Noah, however, pursued a claim for his salary, and eventu- ally he was paid. He continued to clamor for a retraction of the charge that he had been fired because of his religious beliefs. In May 1818, he wrote to Madison: “I could wish, not only for the Sake of my Coreligionaires, but for that of your administration, that if my letter of recall, cannot be erased from the Books of the Department of State, that Such explanations may be Subjoined, as may prevent any evils arising from the precedent.” On May 18, 1818, Madison replied in a very carefully worded letter: “It is certain that your religious profession was well known at the time you recd. your Commission; and that in itself it could not be a motive for your recall.” Although his short diplomatic career had been unsuccess- ful, Noah continued to be a wheeler-dealer and a man of some importance. He moved to New York, founded and edited a number of publications and wrote plays. He attempted in 1825 to found a Jewish “refuge” on Grand Island in the Niagara River, was sheriff of New York, and led New York City’s Tammany Hall political machine for several years. He died in New York in 1851 at the age of 65. n