XYZ Affair name usually given to an incident (1797–98) in Franco-American diplomatic relations. The United States had in 1778 entered into an alliance with France, but after the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars was both unable and unwilling to lend aid. The anti-French Federalists gained the upper hand in the United States, and there was considerable antagonism toward France, particularly after the Genet (see Genet, Edmond Charles Édouard ) affair. The conclusion (1795) of Jay's Treaty with England, which partially vitiated the agreements with France, aroused French anger. Numerous American ships were seized by French privateers, and the countries drifted into a mutually hostile attitude. President Washington sent Charles Cotesworth Pinckney as minister to France, but the French government refused to receive him. Shortly afterward John Adams, the new President, sent (1797) John Marshall and Elbridge Gerry to join Pinckney on a peace mission to France. This three-man commission was immediately confronted by the refusal of French foreign minister Charles Maurice de Talleyrand to receive it officially. Indirect suggestions of loans and bribes to France were made to the commissioners through Mme de Villette, a friend of Talleyrand. Negotiations were carried on through her with Jean Conrad Hottinguer and Lucien Hauteval, both Swiss, and a Mr. Bellamy, an American banker in Hamburg; the three were designated X, Y, and Z in the mission's dispatches to the United States. The proposal that the Americans pay Talleyrand about $250,000 before the French government would even deal with them created an uproar when it was released in the United States, where the pro-British party welcomed the chance to worsen Franco-American relations. The U.S. representatives made no progress and the mission broke up, Marshall coming home, Pinckney taking a sick daughter to S France, and Gerry, a Republican and Francophile, remaining in France temporarily. Meanwhile, an undeclared naval war ensued between France and the United States. Both Talleyrand and President Adams wished to avoid a declaration of war. In 1799 Adams, to the intense disgust of the Federalist leader, Alexander Hamilton, named William Vans Murray the U.S. minister to France and assigned Oliver Ellsworth and William Richardson Davie to accompany him. The result was the Treaty of Mortefontaine (Sept. 30, 1800), known as the Convention of 1800, a commercial agreement that improved relations between the two nations. The XYZ Affair contributed to American patriotic legend in the reply Pinckney is supposed to have made to a French request for money, "Millions for defense, sir, but not one cent for tribute." This reply was certainly not made, but a better case can be made for the alternate version, "No, no, not a sixpence."

Bibliography: See W. Stinchcombe, The XYZ Affair (1980).

XYZ AFFAIR

The XYZ Affair was a diplomatic incident that almost led to war between the United States and France. The scandal inflamed U.S. public opinion and led to the passage of the alien and sedition acts of 1798 (1 Stat. 570, 596). Though the affair caused an unofficial naval war, the two countries were able to negotiate their differences and end their conflict in 1800.

The affair took place during one of the Napoleonic wars between France and Great Britain. The French regarded the United States as a hostile nation, particularly after the signing of Jay's Treaty in 1794. This treaty settled some of the problems that continued to cause friction between the United States and Great Britain after the peace treaty of 1783 that granted the colonies independence. Consequently, President john adams appointed Charles Pinckney minister to France in 1796 in an attempt to ease French-U.S. relations.

After Charles Talleyrand, the French foreign minister, refused to recognize Pinckney, Adams appointed a commission to France, consisting of Pinckney, john marshall, and Elbridge Gerry. Before official negotiations on a treaty to establish peaceful relations and normalize trade could occur, Talleyrand sent three French agents to meet with the commission members. The agents suggested that Talleyrand would agree to the treaty if he received from the United States a $250,000 bribe and France received a $10 million loan. The commission refused, with Pinckney quoted as saying, "No! No! Not a sixpence!"

Outraged, the commission sent a report to Adams, who inserted the letters X, Y, and Z in place of the agents' names and forwarded the report to Congress. Congress and the public were angered at the attempted blackmail. An undeclared naval war took place between the two nations between 1798 and 1800. Anticipating a declared war with France, Congress enacted the Alien and Sedition Acts. These internal security laws were aimed at French and Irish immigrants, who were thought to be supportive of France. The acts lengthened the period of naturalization for aliens, authorized the president to expel any alien considered dangerous, permitted the detention of subjects of an enemy nation, and limited freedom of the press.

Talleyrand, unwilling to risk a declared war with the United States, sought an end to the dispute. The next U.S. delegation sent to France was treated with appropriate respect, and the Treaty of Morfontaine, which restored normal relations between France and the United States, was signed in 1800.

further readings

Stinchcombe, William C. 1980. The XYZ Affair. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press.

Vaughan, Harold Cecil. 1972. The XYZ Affair, 1797–98: The Diplomacy of the Adams Administration and an Undeclared War with France. New York: F. Watts.

cross-references

Virginia and Kentucky Resolves.

XYZ Affair. Jay's Treaty of 1794 with Great Britain, concluded during the war between Britain and revolutionary France, failed to secure the neutral rights of American ships against British searches and seizures. The French were enraged because, after the superior British navy had swept French merchant ships from the sea, France depended on neutral American ships to carry the trade of the French empire. In retaliation, the French began to seize American ships and cargoes. They also refused to receive the new American minister, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney.

Seeking to avoid war, President John Adams sent John Marshall and Elbridge Gerry to join Pinckney in Paris to settle the dispute. The French foreign minister, Talleyrand, believing that the Republicans in the U.S. Congress were gaining ground against Adams's less friendly Federalists, tried to stall the negotiations. He sent three messengers to tell the Americans that before he would receive them, they would have to pay him a $250,000 bribe, loan France $12 million, and apologize for America's supposedly anti‐French policies. Marshall and Pinckney, the two Federalists on the delegation, rejected the demands and left Paris. Gerry, the lone Republican, refused to leave, fearing that a complete break would mean war.

Since Gerry had not left Paris, his Republican colleagues in Congress refused to believe President Adams's report that France had made outrageous demands. They insisted on seeing the letters sent home by the delegation to prove Adams's charges. Adams turned over the correspondence but substituted the letters X, Y, and Z for the names of Talleyrand's messengers. Thus, the episode was dubbed the XYZ Affair. With the Republicans shocked into silence by the proof of French perfidy, Adams in 1798 authorized American ships to protect themselves from French abuse and secured an appropriation to prepare for war. The Quasi‐War with France was under way.
See also Early Republic, Era of the; Federalist Party; Foreign Relations: U.S. Relations with Europe.

Bibliography

Alexander DeConde , The Quasi‐War, 1966.
William Stinchcombe , The XYZ Affair, 1980.

Jerald A. Combs

XYZ AFFAIR

XYZ AFFAIR of 1797–1798 led to an undeclared naval war between France and the United States. This diplomatic crisis had its beginnings in 1778, when the United States entered into a military alliance with the French; however, when the French were unable to completely fulfill the terms of the alliance, anti-French sentiments erupted in the United States. The 1794 Jay's Treaty, concluded between the United States and Britain, angered the French, who retaliated by seizing American ships at sea. In 1796, President George Washington attempted to replace the American minister to France, James Monroe, who had been friendly to the causes of the French Revolution, with Charles Pinckney, whom the French refused to accept. As a result, in 1797 Pinckney returned to France accompanied by John Marshall and Elbridge Gerry, to try to repair relations and to negotiate a new treaty. Bolstered by military victories, the French government asked for a $250,000 loan from the United States before agreeing to meet with the American representatives. Conveyed through three negotiators, a Swiss banker, Jean Hottinguer, known as "Mr. X" in correspondence from John Adams; an American banker in Hamburg, Germany, Mr. Bellamy, "Mr. Y"; and Lucien Hauteval, also Swiss, "Mr. Z," these requests met with outrage in the United States. Consequently, the mission failed, and the undeclared naval war ensued until the Convention of 1800 improved commercial relations between France and the United States.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Smith, Mark A. "Crisis, Unity, and Partisanship: The Road to the Sedition Act." Ph.D diss., University of Virginia, 1998.

Stinchcombe, William. The XYZ Affair. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1980.

JenniferHarrison

XYZ Affair An episode (1797–98) in US-French diplomatic relations. A three-man mission was sent to France to resolve a dispute caused by the USA's unwillingness to aid France in the French Revolutionary wars in spite of treaty obligations made in 1778. TALLEYRAND refused to see the delegation and indirect suggestions of loans and bribes to France came through Mme de Villette, a friend of Talleyrand. Negotiations were carried on through her with X ( Jean Conrad Hottinguer), Y (a Mr Bellamy, a US banker in Hamburg), and Z ( Lucien Hauteval). A proposal that the Americans should pay Talleyrand $250,000 created outrage in the USA. President ADAMS, however, ignored calls for war and reached agreement with the French at the Convention of Mortefontaine (30 September 1800).

XYZ Affair a diplomatic incident in 1798 between the United States and France during a period when French privateers were regularly seizing U.S. merchant ships and the U.S. government was contemplating a naval war. President John Adams dispatched envoys to negotiate with France's foreign minister, who refused to meet them but instead had his own envoys approach the Americans, inviting them to pay tribute and extend a loan to France in order to stop the privateering. This offer was refused; the anonymous French agents, referred to as X, Y, and Z in Adams' report to Congress, were vilified, and public outcry led to the Congress authorizing 1,000 privateers to capture or repel French vessels.

XYZ Affair (1797–98) Diplomatic incident that strained US relations with France. President John Adams sent three representatives to renegotiate the French-US alliance of 1778, which had given way to hostility after the signing of Jay's Treaty (1794). Three French agents, known as X, Y and Z, demanded bribes and a loan before negotiations began, causing an uproar in the USA and the recall of its commissioners.

XYZ Affair a diplomatic incident of the late 18th century in which American ministers in Paris to negotiate a trade agreement to protect US shipping were approached by three French agents, referred to as X, Y, and Z in diplomatic correspondence, who suggested the payment of bribes to facilitate negotiations. The occurrence became publicly known in the US, and there was an outcry which nearly led to war.