Page:Dramatic Moments in American Diplomacy (1918).djvu/136

116 "The President of the United States and the Dey of Algiers, being desirous to restore and maintain, upon a stable and permanent footing, the relations of peace and good understanding between the two powers, and for this purpose to renew the treaty of peace and amity which was concluded between the two states by William Shaler and Commodore Stephen Decatur * * * and his Highness Omar Pasha, Dey of Algiers * * * etc."

It is hardly possible that this sort of game could be played on us again by so small a band of freebooters. But there is abundant evidence available that the process of evolution has not yet advanced the human race to the point where the same tactics are impossible in the hands of more powerful, if less courteous, marauders. And it is just as well to remember that there is only one kind of diplomacy effective with such gentry. And one kind of diplomat, best exemplified in the person of Stephen Decatur.