The Beginnings of the Longest Unbroken Treaty Relationship in the History of the United States: The Sultan of Morocco's Exequatur for American Diplomat Thomas Barclay, Saluting President Washington and Recognizing Barclay's Mission to Negotiate a Treaty of Peace and Friendship Between Them

"I join with you in perfect peace and friendship"

(Marrakesh, Morocco), June 28, 1786. Single sheet, 16 5/8 x 11 1/4 in. (422 x 286 mm). Illuminated document in Maghrebi script, being the official exequatur issued by Sidi Mohammed ibn Abdallah of Morocco, to American diplomat Thomas Barclay. Moroccan imperial seal at upper center; fine gilt ruled border. Creasing from old folds; laid down on linen; dampstaining along center, affecting some text; separations and small losses along folds.

"To the great President of the American States: I salute you with empressment, and hope in God you are well. The Ambassador, Thomas Barclay, has come to us bearing a precious letter from the Spaniard Charles. We have read it, and we understand all its contents in which you asked us peace with you like the other Christian nations with whom you have made peace. We accept your demand, and peace be between us on land and sea, and according to the Treaties you demanded from us. We have written this in our letter to you, to which I affixed my Sheriffian seal, and we have ordered all our employees in my seaports to do with your vessels and merchandise that go to my seaports, as they do with those of the Spaniards, and your vessels can enter, and anchor with safety in any of my seaports you choose, from Tetuan and Wadnoon; they can also buy and sell, and do business for themselves, and they can depart. We have answered just like this to the great Spaniard Charles, who wrote me a letter on your behalf. I join with you in perfect peace and friendship. In peace. This is written the first day of the blessed month of Ramadan 1200".

Sultan Sidi Mohammed ibn Abdallah of Morocco officially recognizes Thomas Barclay as the American envoy to Morocco to negotiate a treaty of peace and friendship, the first United States treaty with an African nation.

Under Sidi Mohammed ibn Abdallah (1710–90), Morocco became the first nation to recognize the independency of the United States. His 1777 decree welcomed American ships into Moroccan ports and promised them safe passage. Following the end of the Revolutionary War in 1783, Britain withdrew its protection of American vessels from Barbary corsairs, exposing American merchants in the Mediterranean to seizure and imprisonment, often at the cost of expensive ransoms or yearly tributes. In 1784, Congress appointed Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and John Adams joint commissioners tasked with negotiating commercial treaties with European and African nations. Sultan Abdallah, a reformer, had by the end of the Revolution negotiated commercial treaties with all the major European powers, and sought to quickly make one with the United States. Despite this, for months his overtures to the Americans went unanswered. Frustrated by this, in the fall of 1784, he sought to force Congress into action, and seized the Philadelphia merchant ship Betsey, and held the ship and crew hostage.

The Betsey's capture spurred Congress and the commissioners into action. They quickly sought advice from the French and Spanish courts on how to proceed, and drafted instructions and a model treaty for an agent to negotiate on their behalf. Thomas Barclay, an Irish-born American diplomat then serving as Consul in France, was sent to Morocco on Thomas Jefferson's bequest to negotiate this treaty. Born in Ulster, Ireland, Barclay emigrated to the United States in the 1760s, where he became a leading merchant in Philadelphia. During the imperial crisis, he was an ardent Patriot, and served on several committees, such as the Philadelphia Tea Committee and Philadelphia Committee of Correspondence. Appointed by Congress to Consul in France in 1781, during the war he oversaw the outfitting and shipment of war materiel for Washington's army, and then audited American expenditures in Europe for Congress.

He was accompanied to Morocco by diplomatic courier Col. David S. Franks, the first Jewish American in the nascent diplomatic corps. In preparation, Barclay and Franks consulted with the French and Spanish courts, and gathered gifts for the Sultan and the Moroccan court, including tea, textiles, and a copy of the Articles of Confederation. They travelled overland from France through Spain, where they were received by the Spanish court, and were given letters of introduction from King Charles III. Barclay and Franks arrived in Mogador, Morocco (now Essaouira) in early June 1786. "He did not know what to expect, for western diplomatic protocol did not necessarily apply in dealings with the 'pyratical states' of Muslim North Africa. Moreover, Barclay’s objectives—the normalization of commercial relations with Morocco, the prevention of further depredations against American ships in the Mediterranean, and an end to the capture and enslavement of American sailors—were ambitious. His budget for the negotiations was limited, meaning that he could present Emperor Mohammad III and his courtiers with only modest gifts, and was unable to promise the annual tributes that were often part of European treaties with Morocco." (Mass. Historical Society).

Barclay and Franks arrived in Marrakesh on June 19. Within a week of his arrival, Barclay had two meetings with the Sultan, the first public, and the second private, where overtures were made and gifts were exchanged. Through the Sultan's agent, Sidi Haj Taher Ben Abdulhaq Fennish, negotiations began in earnest. A draft completed by the American commissioners in Paris served as the basis for the proposed treaty. Within days, a treaty was successfully negotiated. Largely following the draft treaty, the twenty-five articles of agreement provided for the protection of American shipping along the Moroccan coast and for commerce between the two nations on the basis of the most favored nation. On June 23 it was stamped with the seal of the Sultan, and on June 28, it was delivered (presumably alongside the present document dated the same day) to Barclay for his signature. Understanding the strategic importance of the treaty, Barclay wrote, "Our Trade to the Mediterranean is render'd much the securer for it, and it affords us Ports where our ships may rest if we shou'd be engaged in a European War, or in one with the other Barbary states."

By September 1786, Barclay and Franks had returned to Europe. Franks then delivered the treaty to the American commissioners in Paris, and it was approved and signed by them in January 1787. It was the first treaty between the United States and any African, Muslim, or Arab nation, and it remains the longest unbroken treaty relationship in the history of the United States. Barclay's conduct was commended by both Sultan Abdallah and Congress, and under the new government of the Constitution he was appointed the first consul to Morocco by President Washington in 1791. Sent to Morocco in 1792 to reconfirm the terms of the 1786 treaty, he waited for the cessation of hostilities brought on by Sultan Abdallah's successor, Mawlay al-Yazid bin Mohammed, and the inter-family fight it brought. In 1793, Barclay died in Lisbon after a short illness, the first American diplomat to die on foreign soil.