or as intelligent than the one of Washington. Obviously, Mr. Adams did not do too good of a job on choosing his colleagues. During John Adam's presidency, he ran into the biggest problem in foreign policy. The French were attacking American shipping. Hoping to resolve the problem, Adams sent Charles Pinckney, who was the UnitedStates minister to France, John Marshall, a Virginian federalist, and Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts. The mission was a total disaster. Charles Maurice de Tolleyrand-Perigod, the French foreign minister, sent three agents who demanded a bribe of 250,000 dollarsas the price for making a deal. The Americans went ballistic. "No, no, not a sixpence" was Charles Pinckney's response to the agents. This later became known as the XYZ affair. The talks of negotiations disappeared and all of a sudden there was the possibility of war. "Millions for defense, but not a cent for tribute" had become the national slogan. Just three months after Adams had become president, he called in congress together formeasures of defense to be taken immediately. He did not want to wait any longer. He had asked for a provisional army.(Ellis & Langgeth) He also asked for the officers to be commissioned and for recruiting to begin. However, he did not call for an establishment of a large, professional army. Throughout the two years that the possibility of a war had existed, Adams had made it clear to everyone that he put he put his faith in a strong navy. He did not want to use the army as an instrument for defense. Adams believed that the only way France could be brought around to treaty with American is if it was made clear that the Americans were prepared to fight and that they would not submit to any further humiliation. He wanted France to see that the Americans were not backing down and that they were not afraid to go to war with the nation of France.(Burleigh) In 1798, President Adams signed into law the Alien andSediti...
