an ships causing the threat of war to loom large in American minds. President Adams sent three commissioners to France to work out a solution and to modify the Franco-American alliance of 1778, but the Paris government asked for bribes and a loan from the United States before negotiations could even begin. The American commissioners refused to pay the bribes and they were denied an audience with accredited authorities and even treated with contempt. Two of the commissioners returned to the United States with Elbridge Gerry staying behind to see if he could work something out. This became known as the XYZ affair and was the beginning of an undeclared naval war between France and the United States. The XYZ affair played right into the hands of the Federalist Party. They immediately renounced all treaties of 1788 with France and began their agenda of creating a large standing army and a Navy Department to deal with the threat of an American-French war. Fear and patriotism were fanned and a strong anti-French sentiment swept the land. There was a big mistake thrown into the Federalist hands when Monsieur Y boasted that “the Diplomatic skill of France and the means she possess in your country, are sufficient to enable her, with the French party in America, to throw the blame which will attend the rupture of the negotiations on the Federalist, as you term yourselves, but on the British party, as France terms you.” This boast was to cause suspicion and wide spread denunciation of the Republican Party and its leaders. Senator Sedgwick, majority whip in the Senate, after hearing of the XYZ Affair, said, “It will afford a glorious opportunity to destroy faction. Improve it.” Hamilton equated the public’s perception of the Republican’s opposition to the Federalist’s agenda like that of the Tories in the Revolution. All in all, this boast began the process that became the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798. Th...
