XYZ Affair and the Quasi-War with France
4 OCTOBER 1797
XYZ AFFAIR AND THE QUASI-WAR WITH FRANCE
England and France, the naval superpowers of the 18th century, were at each other’s throats again in the 1790s. Spain and the Netherlands were soon drawn in, creating a true “world war” in which American commercial interests became entangled. Though we were officially neutral, both England and France openly interfered with American commerce with the other. Our US economy was still strapped with Revolutionary War debt, and our Navy counted less than 10 ships, including those under construction! These conditions emboldened cash-poor France to capitalize on the war to seize over 300 American cargoes on the high seas.
Congressional reluctance to re-constitute a Navy left President John Adams only the option of diplomacy. Three emissaries, Charles C. Pinckney, John Marshall, and Elbridge Gerry, were dispatched to Paris to protest the seizures. On 4 October 1797 they held a preliminary secret meeting with four French agents known simply as “W, X, Y, and Z.” The Americans were informed that the French Foreign Minister, Charles Maurice de Talleyrand, would support a negotiated settlement only if the US offered a $10 million low-interest loan to France, if our government assumed all American claims against France, and if Talleyrand received a personal payment of $250,000. Our delegation was completely repulsed by this bribe attempt, and when news reached home, anti-French sentiment swelled. “Millions for defense, but not a penny for tribute!” became the slogan in America, referencing both this French indecorum and the extortion the Barbary States were simultaneously running against our Mediterranean shipping.
Nevertheless, the materially superior French Navy continued its harassment until May 28th, 1798, when Congress would tolerate no more. Then US warships were authorized to, “capture any French vessel found hovering near the coast preying upon American shipping”–thus beginning the undeclared “Quasi-War with France.” Congress expanded our Navy at an unprecedented pace, commissioning 45 new warships and operating nine vessels on loan from the US Revenue Cutter Service. (At its peak in the Revolutionary War, the Continental Navy had only 27 ships, averaging only 20 guns each).
Despite our numeric disadvantage, this conflict proved decidedly one-sided. Only one warship was lost, while 85 French ships were taken. Ultimately, American and French delegates met in Paris to negotiate the Convention of 1800. When the US Congress ratified this treaty on 3 February 1801, the unofficial “quasi-war” officially ended. John Adams, considered by many to be “hawk-ish,” counted this peace the greatest achievement of his Presidency.
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CAPT James Bloom, Ret.
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US Department of State website. “The XYZ Affair and the Quasi-War with France, 1798-1800.” AT: http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ho/time/nr/16318.htm, retrieved 2 October 2008.
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ADDITIONAL NOTES: History has since revealed the French agents to be: (W) Nicholas Hubbard; (X) Jean Hottinguer; (Y) Pierre Bellamy; and (Z) Lucien Hauteval.