What was the talleyrand affair

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The British had seized American vessels and impressed its sailors, while the French had captured more than three hundred American ships in alone.

Two days before, the French had issued a decree threatening all American shipping. The French navy and privateers brazenly preyed on U. Besides attacking American ships, the French also refused to receive the new U.

Pinckney, who replaced James Monroe. President Adams would not countenance such insults to American national honor and security. On May 16, , he addressed a special session of Congress and asked for war preparations. The president wanted peace through strength and honor and dispatched a peace delegation to France consisting of John Marshall, Charles C.

Pinckney, and Elbridge Gerry to negotiate an end to the crisis. The envoys arrived in Paris in late September and early October, lodging a few blocks from the foreign ministry.

On October 8, French Foreign Minister Charles Maurice de Talleyrand briefly welcomed the delegation and received their diplomatic credentials. Talleyrand, however, disdained the American statesmen and sought to benefit financially from his office.

In this political cartoon, French men representing the agents codenamed X, Y, and Z rob the woman, who represents the young United States.

The rest of Europe watches from afar. Marshall and Pinckney were especially insulted by the French attempt at blackmail. Sign in via your Institution. You could not be signed in, please check and try again. Sign in with your library card Please enter your library card number. Military Length: words. XYZ Affair. All rights reserved. Sign in to annotate. Late the following year, the United States and Britain signed the Jay's Treaty , which resolved several longstanding issues between those two nations.

After John Adams became president in March , he dispatched a three-member delegation to Paris later that same year in an effort to restore peace between the two countries. Instead, he put them off and eventually had three agents inform the U. When word of the French demands reached the United States, it caused an uproar and prompted calls for war. Roosevelt Harry S. Truman Dwight D. Eisenhower John F. Kennedy Lyndon B. Bush Bill Clinton George W. Help inform the discussion Support the Miller Center.

University of Virginia Miller Center. XYZ Affair.