After the United States won its freedom from Britain with the Treaty of Paris, peace had yet to be achieved on the seas. The US Navy had ceased operations. Followers of Jefferson, suspicious of a standing military, thought it more expeditious to pay ransom to pirates than finance a peacetime navy.

As US shipping routes were disrupted and as a trade debt began to grow, support grew for reconstituting the US Navy. On this day the United States' Congress did exactly that, by authorizing construction of six frigates to help protect American merchant fleets from attacks by Algerian pirates and from harassment by British and French forces.

The vessels were designed by Joshua Humphreys and Josiah Fox and built at six different sites. The contract for one of those ships, the USS CONSTITUTION, was given to Edmond Hartt's Shipyard in Boston.