For the last few weeks, we’ve been covering the growing divide in the US over a possible war with France. This week, that possibility grows exponentially following what has become known as the XYZ Affair.
 |
| Property protected à la françoise |
Washington sent Charles Cotesworth Pinckney to replace Monroe. When Pinckney arrived in December 1796, French officials refused to accept his credentials. A few months later, they threatened him with arrest if he remained in France. France also had begun seizing US merchant vessels at sea. All of this really just came to light in America as Washington was leaving office, meaning President Adams would have to resolve it.
Adams called an emergency session of Congress where he made clear that relations with France had fallen apart and that the US needed to build up its army and navy to deal with this threat. At the same time, he also formed a three member commission, to send to France to work out a diplomatic solution. The commissioners were John Marshall of Virginia, Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts, and Charles Cotesworth Pinckney of South Carolina, the same man that French officials had rejected as the new American Minister.
The Directory
Before we get into the Commission’s actions, it might be helpful to understand what was going on in France at this time. The French Revolution began in 1789, but took several years before it abolished the monarchy, executed the king, and fundamentally changed the government.
By 1792, the convention ran the country. It consisted of nearly 800 elected representatives, making governing virtually impossible, with no executive branch. Eventually it evolved that the Committee of Public Safety within the convention ran things, but that led to the Reign of Terror. Politicians were always trying to out-radical each other and vying for power in this rather unstructured environment.
To provide more organization, the Convention adopted a constitution in 1793, but it never really went into effect. The Convention suspended it, arguing that wartime emergencies made implementation impossible. In 1795, France finally implemented a constitution. This one maintained a popularly elected Council of 500. It created a second legislative body called the Council of Ancients. Voting for the Council of Ancients had stiff property requirements, and voters had to be at least 30 years old. Those elected had to be at least 40 years old. This body consisted of 250 elected officials.
 |
| French Directory |
The idea behind all this was to create more structure and separation of powers and to prevent governments from swinging wildly in any single election. It was designed to restore stability following the chaos of the Reign of Terror that it replaced.
Despite this supposedly well-ordered system, the fact that France was still at war with most of Europe, and that the economy was in shambles, led to repeated shake-ups, attempted coups, assassinations, and crack downs on civil rights. In short, French leaders had much more on their minds than their relations with the United States.
Talleyrand
One French leader who was giving some thought to the US was Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand, the Directory’s new foreign minister.
Talleyrand came from a minor noble family in France. Due to a clubbed foot, he could not pursue a career in the army. Instead, he entered seminary. After being expelled for a sexual affair, he was nevertheless ordained thanks to family connections, in 1779. A decade later, he received an appointment as a bishop.
 |
| Talleyrand |
Talleyrand turned to diplomacy, getting an appointment to serve as a negotiator in London, trying to keep Britain out of a war with France. His 1792 meetings with Prime Minister William Pitt secured neutrality, but the execution of King Louis and the invasion of Belgium the following year made war with Britain inevitable. Talleyrand had to leave Britain, but going back to France would probably result in his arrest and execution.
Instead, he moved to America. On his way to America, he reported having diner with British General Benedict Arnold in Falmouth. In America, Talleyrand settled in Philadelphia, where he lived privately for about two years. He made contacts, getting involved in land deals and other financial schemes, helping Americans secure European investments..
He formed social contacts and financial arrangements with men like Alexander Hamilton, Robert Morris, and Henry Knox. He even took an oath of allegiance to the US in 1794. After the formation of the Directory in France, Talleyrand was no longer under fear of arrest in France. He returned in the fall of 1796, just as relations between the US and France were collapsing. In July, 1797, the Directory appointed him Foreign Minister. This was not necessarily a safe job. Of the fourteen men who had held the position since the Revolution began, five had been executed, four were in exile, and at least two others had been imprisoned.
Talleyrand relied on his time living in America, and also consulted with others, including former ministers Fauchet and Adet who were both back in France by this time. If Americans thought they were on the brink of war with France, no one in France seemed to agree. They saw no benefit in going to war. Doing so would only push the US further into the arms of Britain, which is exactly the opposite of what they wanted.
The Directory seemed to have been betting on a friendly government in America winning the 1796 elections. When that did not happen, France simply wanted to do whatever it could to keep the US from deepening its relationship with Britain.
Talleyrand had no real power to make foreign policy, but he did advise the Directory on the subject. In October 1797, he recommended that France drag out negotiations with the US. This would prevent them from having to give into any US demands, while at the same time stringing them along so that they did not move closer to Britain.
To delay discussions, Talleyrand suggested they demand an explanation of President Adams’ speech to Congress since they understood that as a threat of war. It would make clear to the Americans that the French were not negotiating under any such threats.
The Commissioners
Around the same time that Talleyrand was proposing delayed negotiations with the Americans, the delegation from America arrived in Paris.
 |
| Charles C, Pinckney |
After a couple of weeks, Marshall and Pinckney headed to Paris on their own. They arrived on September 27. Finally, a week later on October 4, Gerry arrived.
The Commission’s options were pretty limited. They had instructions not to approve any grants or loans to France. They could not agree to anything that would violate US obligations under the Jay Treaty with Britain, and could not accept any French restrictions on the rights of American commerce. In short, they could use nice words but were not authorized to concede anything of substance.
Negotiation Attempts
The three Commissioners went to Talleyrand’s office, but he refused to see them. The French minister started playing games with them. First, he had Thomas Paine send them a letter suggesting the Americans accepted a role of an unarmed neutral. Pinckney wrote back a non-committal reply, but that told Talleyrand that he could communicate via unofficial back channels without giving the commission any official recognition.
A few days after that, Jean Conrad Hottinguer stopped by Pinckney’s apartment in the evening. Pinckney was having dinner with Marshall. Hottinguer asked Marshall to leave so that he and Pinckney could have a private discussion. Marshall agreed.
.jpg) |
| John Marshall |
When Pinckney told his fellow commissioners about these unofficial demands, they all agreed that it was a non-starter. Pinckney and Marshall were ready to be done, but Gerry said they should press for more details. In another meeting with Hottinguer, on October 19, Hottinguer set the bribe amount at 1.2 million livres, about $250,000. Only Gerry wanted to continue.
Talleyrand believed that he and successfully divided the commissioners and that Gerry was the weakest link in the group. He sent Lucien Hauteval, an old business acquaintance of Gerry to say that Talleyrand was ready to meet informally. Again, Pinckney and Marshall refused. They demanded only a formal meeting. Gerry went by himself, believing that a social call with Hauteval and Talleyrand, both of whom he already knew, would not commit the US to anything.
The meeting itself did not discuss anything of substance. Talleyrand had used it as a way of confirming that Gerry seemed willing to negotiate without his fellow commissioners.
The following day, October 20, a businessman named Bellamy visited Marshall at his apartment. He noted that France had just signed a peace treaty with Austria a few days prior. That meant the war in Europe was largely over. The only belligerent still facing France was Britain. France could now focus more on that, as well as making more demands on the US.
Hottinguer returned a few days after that, claiming the Directory was becoming impatient, expecting their bribe. He also noted that France had defeated the great powers of Europe and that America needed to step up. France would no longer accept neutrality. The US could be a friend or an enemy, nothing in between. Pinckney replied that the US was not ready to roll over and demanded free commerce. Hottinguer again brought up the subject of the bribe, at which point Pinckney lost his temper and screamed “No, no, not a sixpence!”
Seeing that these unofficial discussions were breaking down, Gerry went to see Talleyrand and Hauteval again. He made clear the commissioners had no authority to offer any grants or loans and could not pay any bribes. Talleyrand suggested the commissioners front the money out of their personal funds and that there would be additional hostile measures within a week if there were no concessions. Later, Hauteval suggested that one commissioner return to America to get authority for a loan while the others continued to negotiate.
While the commissioners rejected this, they said they might agree to a smaller cash payment if France suspended the seizure of American vessels. Talleyrand thought he was close to breaking the commissioners. He sent Bellamy back to talk about the unfortunate fate of those countries that had opposed France, and that France might use its Republican contacts in America to stir up public opinion against the commission.
On November 3, Bellamy told them that the Directory was going to send a complaint to Philadelphia that Pinckney and Marshall were too uncooperative, saying that if Aaron Burr and James Madison had been sent, this whole thing could have been resolved by now.
After about five weeks of negotiations, the commissioners had had enough. Marshall and Pinckney were disgusted by the way they were being treated, without any official recognition and the continuing demands for bribes just to start official discussions. Both of them were ready to return home, declaring the attempted diplomatic solution a failure.
 |
| Elbridge Gerry |
The commissioners gave up their hotel rooms ,instead moving to a less expensive guest house run by a Madame de Villette. She was a charming hostess to the commissioners. Unknown to them, she was also working as an agent for Talleyrand.
At the end of the year, Gerry received word that the Directory wanted Marshal and him to remain in France, but wanted Pinckney gone. The Directory also issued a new edict saying that they would seize any ship that was carrying any goods of English origin.
Marshall tried to draft a written summary of the American position for the Directory, but Gerry, got him to delay delivery as Gerry continued discussions on his own.
By February, Talleyrand was still pushing for a promise of a loan, trying to convince Gerry that he could do so, but also told him not to discuss the plan with his colleagues. He also announced that a refusal would mean the expulsion of all the commissioners. Gerry still refused to agree.
Talleyrand did not follow through on his threat. Instead February turned into March, when Talleyrand agreed to meet with all three commissioners again. It was a final push for a loan. When that wasn’t forthcoming, Talleyrand suggested that Marshall and Pinckney leave the country before they were forcibly expelled.
The commissioners met amongst themselves for the final time on April 3, 1798. Both Marshal and Pinckney were fed up with Gerry. They thought his willingness to accept Talleyrand’s continued indignities were embarrassing to the country and were making him into a French puppet. Gerry thought they were just jealous and were letting personal grudges get in the way of negotiations. Marshall left for Bordeaux to catch a shop home.
Pinckney, who had his family with him, got permission to travel to Lyon so that his sick daughter had time to recover before a trans-Atlantic voyage. By the time she was healthy enough to travel, France had closed all of its ports to American shipping. Pinckney remained in the country until August. He spent some of that time trying to document the American sailors being held in French prisons. Gerry ended up leaving France around the same time, after receiving orders from Secretary of State Pickering to do so.
Reception in America
Back in America, word of progress was sketchy. Not only did Congress leave Philadelphia in July, but so did most of the other branches. Yellow fever struck the city again. Unlike the 1793 epidemic, which killed 10% of the population, this one only killed about 2%. Adams prudently moved back to Massachusetts, returning only in November when the new session of Congress began.
Congress was still battling over policy. Federalists wanted even larger armies and navies. The Democratic Republicans opposed this, even after a French privateer entered Charleston Harbor and burned a British ship there in violation of American neutrality.
It wasn’t until March 4, 1798 that dispatches from Europe, sent in January, finally arrived. They reported that Talleyrand would not negotiate until he received an explanation for Adams’ address to congress the year prior. Everyone saw this as an insult, treating the president like an underling. It further identified three men who had demanded bribes for Talleyrand and the Directors as well as a loan for France. The report did not identify the men by name but referred to Hottinguer as X, Bellamy as Y, and Hauteval as Z.
Adams was upset that the commissioners did not leave immediately, but there was little that could be done about that now. He called together the cabinet and discussed the possibility of war. The Cabinet was mixed. They corresponded with Hamilton who thought that war or a British alliance was inadvisable as it would divide the country.
Adams drafted a message outlining France’s attacks on America’s national honor and its refusal to stop attacking American shipping. He called for a declaration of war. After a few days, Adams thought better of it. He shelved the message, as well as the dispatches, keeping all of them secret.
Instead, on March 19, he sent a mild and vague message, drafted by Secretary of Treasury Wolcott, simply reporting that the commissioners’ reports gave little hope of success. He called on Congress to do more to protect American shipping, and lifted an order that prevented American vessels from arming themselves.
The Republicans in Congress, that is, the pro-French faction, as well as Vice President Jefferson, thought Adams was being vague and refusing to release the reports because France was really on the verge of a successful diplomatic solution and that Adams wanted to prevent that and go to war. Demonstrations around the country condemned the president’s efforts to drive the US into a war with France.
Congress demanded the release of the original reports from the commissioners. Adams refused at first. In April, the House passed a resolution demanding the release of the documents. President Adams released them. Congress was stunned when it learned the truth. The Federalists in the Senate immediately voted to release the papers to the public.
The reports shocked the nation. Republicans were stunned by the abusive and insulting treatment of the American commissioners. As Americans became aware of the truth, the public calls went from attacking Adams for pushing the country toward war, to calling for war with France.
War with France seemed inevitable.
Next Week: The Quasi-War with France begins.
- - -
Next Episode 404 The Quasi-War with France (coming soon)
Previous Episode 402 A Brawl in Congress
 |
| Click here to donate |
 |
| Click here to see my Patreon Page |
Signup for the AmRev Podcast Mail List
Further Reading
Websites
The XYZ Affair https://www.thoughtco.com/the-xyz-affair-4175006
Adams Address to Congress, May 16, 1797: https://www.let.rug.nl/usa/presidents/john-adams/the-xyz-affair-1797.php
The French Directory: https://www.worldhistory.org/French_Directory
BAUER, JEAN. “With Friends Like These: John Adams and the Comte de Vergennes on Franco-American Relations.” Diplomatic History, vol. 37, no. 4, 2013, pp. 664–92. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/44254324
Kramer, Eugene F. “Some New Light on the XYZ Affair: Elbridge Gerry’s Reasons for Opposing War with France.” The New England Quarterly, vol. 29, no. 4, 1956, pp. 509–13. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/362143
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, vol. 3, no. 4, 1983, pp. 389–412. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/3122881
Stinchcombe, William. “Talleyrand and the American Negotiations of 1797-1798.” The Journal of American History, vol. 62, no. 3, 1975, pp. 575–90. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/2936215
(from archive.org unless noted)
America and France. The intire [sic] message of the president of the United States, to both houses of Congress: covering the full powers to, and dispatches from, the envoys extraordinary of the United States, to the French Republic, Boston: B. Russell, 1798.
Bowers, Claude G. Jefferson and Hamilton: The Struggle for Democracy in America, London: Constable and Co. 1925.
Morse, Jr. John T. John Adams, Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Co. 1884.
Wood, John The History of the Administration of John Adams, Esq., Late President of the United States, New York: Barlas and Ward, 1802.
Books Worth Buying
(links to Amazon.com unless otherwise noted)*
Brown, Ralph A. The Presidency of John Adams, Univ. of Kansas Press, 1975.
Chernow, Ron Alexander Hamilton, Penguin Press, 2004.
Chervinsky, Lindsay M. Making the Presidency John Adams and the Precedents That Forged the Republic, Oxford Univ. Press, 2024.
DeConde, Alexander The Quasi War: The Politics and Diplomacy of the Undeclared war with France, 1797-1801, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1966.
Elkins, Stanley M. and Eric McKitrick, The Age of Federalism: The Early American Republic, 1788–1800, Oxford Univ. Press, 1993 (borrow on archive.org).
Kurtz, Stephen G. The Presidency of John Adams: The Collapse of Federalism, 1795-1800, Literary Licensing, LLC, 2011.
Malone, Dumas Jefferson and the Ordeal of Liberty, Little Brown & Co. 1962 (borrow on archive.org).
McCullough, David John Adams, Simon & Schuster, 2001.
Meacham, Jon Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power, Random House, 2012
Miller, John C. Alexander Hamilton and the Growth of the New Nation (or Portrait in Paradox), Harper & Brothers, 1959 (borrow on archive.org)
Nester, William The Hamiltonian Vision, 1789-1800, Potomac Books, 2012 (Chapter 19 on XYZ available at JSTOR)
Randall, Willard Sterne Thomas Jefferson: A Life, Henry Holt and Co. 1993.
Shaw Peter The Character of John Adams, Univ. of NC Press, 1976.
Smith, Jean E. John Marshall: Definer of a Nation, Henry Holt & Co. 1996.
Staloff, Darren Hamilton, Adams, Jefferson: The Politics of Enlightenment and the American Founding, Hill and Wang, 2005.
Wood, Gordon S. Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789-1815, Oxford Univ. Press, 2009.
* As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
