XYZ Affair
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The XYZ Affair was a 1798 diplomatic episode that worsened relations between France and the United States and led to the undeclared Quasi-War of 1798. John Jay's Treaty of 1795 angered France, which was at war with Great Britain and interpreted the treaty as evidence of an Anglo-American alliance. U.S. President John Adams and his Federalist Party had also been critical of the tyranny and extreme radicalism of the French Revolution, further souring relations between France and the States[1].
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[edit] Summary
The French seized nearly three hundred American ships bound for British ports in the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean and Caribbean Seas. Federalist leaders such as Alexander Hamilton called for war, but President Adams sent a diplomatic delegation (Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, John Marshall, and Elbridge Gerry) to Paris in 1797 to negotiate peace. Three French agents, Jean Conrad Hottinguer, Pierre Bellamy, and Lucien Hauteval, demanded a large cash bribe for the delegation to speak to French foreign minister Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, a huge loan to help fund the French wars as a condition for continuing negotiations, and a formal apology for comments made by Adams.[2] The Americans broke off negotiations and went home. Thomas Jefferson's Democratic-Republican Party, sensing that the American delegates were to blame for the failure, demanded to see the key documents. Adams released the delegation's report—with the names of the French agents changed to X,Y,Z, hence the popular name of both the affair and the correspondence—setting off a firestorm of anti-French sentiment as Americans blamed the French. France's refusal to negotiate with the accredited U.S. representatives, let alone receive them, without bribes for its leading members and a loan for its military incursions in Europe seemed an extreme insult to Americans. The public learned that the American delegates had rejected the demands. "The answer is no! No, not a sixpence!" was their response (translated by newspaper editors as "Millions for defense, but not one cent for tribute!") [3].
The U.S. had offered France many of the same provisions found in Jay's Treaty with Britain, but France reacted by sending Marshall and Pinckney home. Gerry remained in France, thinking he could prevent a declaration of war, but did not officially negotiate any further.
The Quasi-War erupted (1798-1800), with American and French warships and merchants ships fighting in actual combat in the Caribbean and off the east American coast. (It was called "quasi" because there was no formal war declaration.) The Americans abrogated the Franco-American Alliance. Adams began to build up the navy, and a new army was raised. Full-scale war seemed at hand, but Adams appointed new diplomats led by William Murray. They negotiated an end to hostilities through the 1800 Treaty of Mortefontaine. The XYZ Affair significantly weakened the affection Americans had for France. [4]
[edit] Notes
- ^ John Ferling, John Adams: A Life. (1992), pg. 452
- ^ The loan was to be 31 million Dutch guldens—about $12 million—and the bribe 50,000 pounds sterling, or about $250,000. Elkins and McKitrick (1993) p.572
- ^ Elkins and McKitrick (1993) pg. 550
- ^ Hale (2003); Ray (1983)
[edit] References
- Brown, Ralph A. The Presidency of John Adams. (1988).
- Elkins, Stanley M. and Eric McKitrick, The Age of Federalism. (1993)
- Ferling, John. John Adams: A Life. (1992)
- Hale, Matthew Rainbow. "'Many Who Wandered in Darkness': the Contest over American National Identity, 1795-1798." Early American Studies 2003 1(1): 127-175. Issn: 1543-4273
- Miller, John C. The Federalist Era: 1789-1801 (1960), pp 210-227
- Ray, Thomas M. "'Not One Cent for Tribute': The Public Addresses and American Popular Reaction to the XYZ Affair, 1798-1799." Journal of the Early Republic (1983) 3(4): 389-412. Issn: 0275-1275 Fulltext online in Jstor
- Jean Edward Smith, John Marshall: Definer Of A Nation, New York: Henry, Holt & Company, 1996.
- Stinchcombe, William. The XYZ Affair. Greenwood, 1980. 167 pp.
- Stinchcombe, William. "The Diplomacy of the WXYZ Affair," in William and Mary Quarterly, 34:590-617 (October 1977); in JSTOR; note the "W".
