The XYZ Affair
“Property protected--à la Françoise.” Library of Congress.
On March 4, 1797, John Adams was sworn in as the second president of the United States and began a four-year stretch that would be dominated by a deteriorating relationship with France. Adams would also see a decrease in support from his own Federalist Party as the supremely conscientious Adams pursued policies that he deemed best for the country, but not necessarily best for the party or his popularity.
One of President Adams’s early decisions was to retain President George Washington’s cabinet officers (Secretary of State Timothy Pickering, Secretary of Treasury Oliver Wolcott, Secretary of War James McHenry, and Attorney General Charles Lee). Although Adams was not close to these men, he felt keeping them would provide continuity to the country, and perhaps give peace of mind to the citizenry who were worried about how the young nation would survive without George Washington. It was a decision Adams would live to regret as all except Charles Lee proved to be more loyal to Alexander Hamilton, the true leader of the Federalist Party and Washington’s former Secretary of the Treasury, than to Adams.
As President, Adams planned to stay true to President Washington’s policy of neutrality in the expanding war between England and France and resist the demands of other Federalists to side with England. However, France considered American neutrality an affront to its wartime ally and viewed the recently approved Jay Treaty, which settled major differences with England, as proof America was secretly supporting the British.
Angered by American policy, armed French vessels began capturing American merchant ships in mid-1796 and, within a year, they had captured over 300 American ships, roughly 6 percent of the country’s entire merchant fleet. Unfortunately, the United States had no navy as the last United States warship from the American Revolution had been decommissioned in 1785 to save money and the country was powerless to respond.
James Earl. "Charles Cotesworth Pinckney." Wikimedia.
Worried that emotions would push France and America into an open war, President John Adams sent a commission to Paris to try and calm these rising tensions. The delegation consisted of John Marshall and Elbridge Gerry, who left for Europe in the summer of 1797. They sailed for Amsterdam to meet Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, who was residing there because the ruling French Directory had refused to receive Pinckney as the United States Minister to France and ordered him to leave the country. While Marshall and Pinckney were staunch Federalists, Adams sent Gerry, who leaned towards Vice President Thomas Jefferson’s Democratic-Republican Party, to provide balance to the commission and because Adams trusted him from many years of working together.
Proceeding from Amsterdam, the delegation arrived in Paris in early October and received a brief interview with France’s powerful Foreign Minister Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand but were then put off for weeks. They were finally approached by three French officials (Jean Conrad Hottinger, Pierre Bellamy, and Lucien Hauteval) whose code names were respectively X, Y, and Z. These Frenchmen informed the Americans that before any negotiations could start, a few “sweeteners” would need to be provided to French officials, including $250,000 for Talleyrand, a man who extracted ‘sweets” from anyone to whom he granted an audience.
Additionally, the United States would have to loan $10,000,000 to the Republic of France as compensation for alleged insults to France that President Adams made during a speech to Congress in May. In reality, the President’s remarks were simply his restatement that the United States intended to maintain its neutral stance and that the country was prepared to defend its rights, especially on the high seas.
The Americans were outraged and refused to pay anything to begin negotiations with the French. Hottinger replied, “You do not speak to the point. It is expected that you will offer money.” Pinckney famously replied, “No, no, not a sixpence,” and Marshall quickly sent dispatches relating this affair to President Adams. After several months of fruitless discussions and no bribe payment, Marshall and Pinckney sailed for home (Gerry decided to stay behind), declaring the mission at an end.
When President Adams received Marshall’s summary of the discussions in early March 1798, including the French bribe demands, Adams withheld the documents from both Congress and the public, stating only that the mission had failed. He was worried releasing them would only heighten tensions in the United States, and above all Adams still hoped for an honorable peace with France. Democratic-Republicans, who opposed his Federalist Party, assumed his refusal to release Marshall’s papers was an attempt to cover up missteps by the American delegation.
On April 2, Republicans in the House demanded the papers be released and President Adams complied. Americans across the political spectrum, including many Democratic-Republicans, were stunned at the under-handed actions of the French and a wave of anti-French sentiment swept the country. That said, politicians in 1798 were no different than today, and the Democratic-Republican newspaper Aurora blamed the entire affair on Adams and his supposed insults of the French, as well as a poor choice of envoys to France. But pushback was immediate, and the Aurora almost went out of business.
This episode, named the XYZ Affair, inflamed national passions and led the Federalists to pass the Alien and Sedition Acts, a series of four laws, which President Adams reluctantly signed in June 1798. These laws would prove to be the President’s greatest political blunder.
Next week, we will discuss the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798. Until then, may your motto be “Ducit Amor Patriae,” love of country leads me.
On March 4, 1797, John Adams was sworn in as the second president of the United States and began a four-year stretch that would be dominated by a deteriorating relationship with France. Adams would also see a decrease in support from his own Federalist Party as the supremely conscientious Adams pursued policies that he deemed best for the country, but not necessarily best for the party or his popularity.