Page 206 - American Stories, A History of the United States

TAbLE 7.1 THE ELEcTiON OF 1796
7.1
candidate Party Electoral Vote
J. Adams Federalist 71
Jefferson Republican 68 7.2
T. Pinckney Federalist 59
burr Republican 30

7.3
Relations between France and the United States had deteriorated. The French
refused to receive Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, the U.S. representative in Paris. Pierre
Adet, the French minister in Philadelphia, openly tried to influence the 1796 election 7.4
in favor of the Republicans. His meddling not only embarrassed Jefferson, it offended
the American people. The situation then took a violent turn. In 1797, French privateers
began seizing American ships. Since neither the United States nor France declared war,
the hostilities came to be known as the Quasi-War. quasi-War Undeclared war 7.5
Hamilton and his friends welcomed an outpouring of anti-French sentiment. The between the United States and
High Federalists—Hamilton’s wing of the party—counseled the president to prepare France in the late 1790s.
for all-out war, hoping that war would purge the United States of French influence.
Adams would not escalate the conflict. He dispatched a special commission to Paris in
an attempt to remove the sources of antagonism. This famous negotiating team con-
sisted of Charles Pinckney, John Marshall, and Elbridge Gerry. They were instructed
to obtain compensation for the ships French privateers had seized and release from
the treaties of 1778. Federalists still worried that this old agreement might oblige the
United States to defend French colonies in the Caribbean against British attack, which
they were reluctant to do. In exchange, the commission offered France the same com-
mercial privileges Jay’s Treaty granted to Britain. While the diplomats negotiated,
Adams talked of strengthening American defenses, rhetoric that pleased militant
Federalists.
The outrageous treatment it received in France shocked the commission. Instead
of dealing directly with Talleyrand, the French foreign minister, they met with obscure
intermediaries who demanded a huge bribe. The commission reported that Talleyrand
would not open negotiations unless he was given $250,000. The French government
also expected a “loan” of millions of dollars. The Americans refused to play this insult-
ing game. Pinckney replied, “No, no, not a sixpence,” and with Marshall he returned to
the United States. When they arrived home, Marshall offered his much-quoted toast:
“Millions for defense, but not one cent for tribute.”
Diplomatic humiliation set off a political explosion. When Adams presented the
commission’s official correspondence to Congress—the names of Talleyrand’s lackeys
were labeled X, Y, and Z—the Federalists burst out with a war cry. At last, they would
be able to even old scores with the Republicans. In April 1798, a Federalist newspaper
in New York City announced that any American who refused to censure France “must
have a soul black enough to be fit for treasons, strategems, and spoils.” Rumors of con- xyZ Affair A diplomatic incident
spiracy, referring to the incident as the XYZ Affair, spread throughout the country. in which American peace
Friendships between Republicans and Federalists were shattered. Jefferson described the commissioners sent to France by
tense political atmosphere in a letter to an old colleague: “You and I have formerly seen President John Adams in 1797
were insulted with bribe demands
warm debates and high political passions. But gentlemen of different politics would then from their French counterparts,
speak to each other, and separate the business of the Senate from that of society. It is not dubbed X, Y, and Z in American
so now. Men who have been intimate all their lives, cross the streets to avoid meeting, newspapers. The incident
and turn their heads another way, lest they should be obliged to touch their hats.” heightened war fever against
France.
crushing Political Dissent Quick Check

In spring 1798, High Federalists assumed that Adams would ask Congress for a dec- During the XyZ affair, why did
laration of war. In the meantime, they pushed for rearmament, new warships, harbor representatives of the french
fortifications, and, most important, an expanded U.S. Army. About the need for land Government treat American
forces, Adams remained skeptical. He saw no likelihood of French invasion. diplomats with such disrespect?
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