The XYZ Affair In the wake of the ratification of Jay's Treaty between the United States and England, the French policy of seizing American vessels on the high seas threatened to cripple the American merchant fleet. Unprepared for war and lacking a sufficient naval force to defend American merchant ships at sea, President John Adams dispatched a special commission to France to renegotiate trade treaties with the French Republic. The American commission to France was made up of John Marshall of Virginia, Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts, and South Carolinian Charles Pinckney. While the Americans were negotiating from a standpoint of weakness, France was working from a point of strength. Bonaparte's army had proven highly effective in its conquest of Europe, and France's governing body, the Directory, had gained considerable prestige abroad as a result of French military might. As the French army proved triumphant, the officials within the Directory had become corrupt and grasping. Small nations that wished to avoid conflict with France, such as Portugal, accepted the fact that bribes and loans had to be provided to the Directory. If the American commissioners were to succeed in establishing peace with France, they had to gain the cooperation of the French Directory's Minister of Foreign Relations, Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord. The Americans hoped that Talleyrand would be open to constructive discussion and peaceful settlement with America because he had been treated well during his two-year exile in the United States. However, Talleyrand's experience in America had the opposite effect. Talleyrand disliked his stay in the United States, and grew to believe that the Americans would always be more favorably inclined to ally themselves with Britain than France. He felt Americans had not yet developed a separate national image from England. Language, culture, and history united the Americans and the English, and Talleyrand ultimately viewed the United States as a nation whose power needed to be checked. However, Talleyrand aside, the American commission was doomed from the start, largely due to the corruption of the French Directory. Before the Americans were allowed an audience with the Foreign Minister, they were pointedly informed that personal bribes to Directory ministers in the sum of 50,000 pounds would be required. That initial bribe would then be followed by a large loan to the French government, and only then could negotiations on a new treaty and the seizure of American ships begin. Outraged and shocked by this demand, the Americans refused to pay. For four months the Americans demanded to be diplomatically recognized by the French government and to begin negotiations, and for four months the French made it clear that until the bribe had been paid, nothing could be done. In January 1798, the French further hardened their determination to bully the Americans into denouncing Jay's Treaty. Without warning, France announced it would confiscate any ship found to be carrying English goods of any kind. After a year of fruitless demands and counterdemands, the American commissioners returned to the United States having achieved nothing. While Marshall, Gerry, and Pinckney had been in France, the United States Congress had been debating the issue of what could be done to defend American ships on the high seas. Many Federalists argued that a navy should be established and every effort made to complete the three frigates that had been under construction since 1794. They further insisted that the time had come to establish a separate executive department to oversee naval affairs--the Department of the Navy. Republicans, opposed to government spending, were simultaneously calling for an investigation of the War Department and War Secretary McHenry on the overspending and delays in the construction of ships. Party divisions deadlocked action on all issues. In March 1798, President Adams received verification of the American commission's failure to gain any ground in establishing new relations with France. That month, he sent a message to Congress announcing that efforts to reach a peaceful settlement had failed. He encouraged Congress to take action to protect American merchant shipping. Initially, many Republican members of Congress doubted the truthfulness of Adams's announcement of the failed mission, seeing it as a Federalist ploy to build a navy. However, Adams produced the diplomatic papers recording the French demands, after having substituted X, Y, and Z for the names of the French agents, thus giving rise to this affair's historic name. Congressional outrage with France grew. Further debate on ways to placate the French ceased, and Congress quickly focused on finding a way to defend American ships at sea.
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