Ep. 78: The XYZ Affair: Lessons in Diplomacy and Decorum for a Young Nation

What do the Jay Treaty, the Logan Act, Fries' Rebellion, and the Alien and Sedition Acts have to do with this time? Are they all connected? We are taking a short break from our series on Charles I this week. Instead we will be discussing the XYZ Affair. The 1790s in America were almost as messy as the 1640s in England. There was trouble with both France and England. The United States had treaties with both nations, and those treaties conflicted. When the French Revolution wiped the Monarchy away, war with England was inevitable. The combination of the conflicting treaties and the expectation for the United States allegiance further divided American politics. When the French minister, Genet, tried to use the United States as a staging area for France to attack both England and Spain, there was resentment. When the French minister Talleyrand attempted to bribe the United States, there were calls for war... and there actually was a two year Quasi War fought from 1798-1800. President John Adams made a lot of mistakes during these tense years, but in the end, he may have saved the country. There are a lot of lessons here for our day.

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