# 1301.8a - Adams' Foreign Policy

**Channel:** Chad Tomaselli
**Source:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyVTb-WbQ_I
**Transcript page:** https://www.withtranscript.ai/video/NyVTb-WbQ_I

## Chapters

- 0:00 — Election of 1796 and Adams
- 1:30 — The XYZ Affair Escalates Tensions
- 5:43 — The Quasi-War and Convention
- 8:26 — Adams's Backlash and Legacy

## Transcript

**[0:00]:** with the major events of Washington's presidency over we now turn to the second President John Adams now first we have to get him elected Washington for the election of 1796 was pushed to run for a third term but he absolutely refused uh he refused to run so he only served two terms which I said before became president or tradition the Federalist candidate was John Adams he and he defeated the uh Jefferson the Democratic Republican Challenger and of course because Jefferson came in second place he became vice president so in this election the Federalists hold power but not by much they still held Congress they still held majority in of the appointees to the judicial branch and you can see this is a very close election you can also see the north south divide with the red Northern Federal Estates in the green Southern Democratic Republican states so the Federalists hold power but not by much

**[1:02]:** this is the first election where party affiliation was a big deal since Washington was not involved and this is also the first real campaigning and subsequently the first dirty campaigning but that's more of a story for the next election so we're going to jump ahead pass the election and talk about Adam's presidency and you'll see from the dates he's a one-term president and we'll pick up where we left off with Washington which was with foreign policy

**[1:30]:** problems remained with the French they were still seizing vessels in the same way that the British had been they were impressing American sailors they were upset at the U.S for not assisting in the wars of the French Revolution and they were particularly upset about Jay's Treaty because it gave the appearance that the U.S wanted to side with Great Britain over their French Ally remember France was the first country to recognize American independence France was the first country to directly support and get involved in the American Revolution on the on the American side and the fact that U.S wasn't helping them in their Revolution as radical and crazy as it got as the image on the slide is depicting the guillotining the execution of King Louis XVI they were upset about all this and with all the things going on in the high seas the impressment the stopping of American ships there were also calls for war with the French so Adams taking a page from Washington's

**[2:30]:** book is going to send negotiators to France to try to secure a PD and prevent security secure a treaty and prevent a war and they're going to offer a similar deal with France as what they got with Jay's Treaty the result though was what we call the XYZ Affair the person that the American negotiators needed to meet with was the French foreign minister Charles Maurice to Tyler and Perry Gord or tally rant I know a little bit about this guy which is also why he may or may not have noticed that this painting is the highest resolution we have because makes sense that being the French Revolution being my specific area of expertise in Napoleon and having done my Master's thesis on tally Rand that's where I have spent the time finding the best versions of these of these paintings um that's who they needed to meet with but European diplomacy

**[3:37]:** worked differently on the continent than it did in Britain what you typically had to do was exchange gifts often monetary often money and that wasn't necessarily the case with the British so the Americans show up and they meet three agents of the French Foreign Ministry three lower level agents underneath tally Rand and in their letters back home to to Adams the Americans called these agents X Y and Z Agent X agent y agent Z hence the name these three agents made two demands in order for the Americans to meet with foreign minister tally Rand uh they're that here are the two things that the Americans needed to do one loan the French government 10 million dollars and this is 10 million in 1797 money loan the French government 10 million dollars second provide a personal gift of 250 thousand dollars to tally rent to negotiate basically their gift to him to say hey we're here

**[4:40]:** to negotiate we're here in good faith here's 250 Grand again not necessarily unheard of the loan to the government was unusual but the gift maybe the amount was a bit much but the the gift was not necessarily out of order the US Refuge not only refused these demands they were outraged and the talks never really began in fact two of the American negotiators just went home they sent letters back to Adams that's where they get the XYZ names for the French agents and Adams tried to keep these letters from getting out from causing a big problem but obviously they did and when news broke in the US it caused a new wave of anti-fringe sentiment to sweep the US and also very loud calls for war even among some democratic republicans so this was a failure the XYZ result Affair resulted in a failure there was no treaty brokered between the French and the Americans

**[5:43]:** and it looks like there might be a war and in a way there was called the quasi-war this is an Undeclared unofficial War between the two Nations in 1798 99 and 1800 it was only on the high seas essentially They seized each other's ships and had a few small Naval battles but there was no soldiers involved there was no armies involved more particularly there was no official Declarations of War it was essentially as close to a war as you can be without being in war relations were unfriendly trade still existed but was obviously dangerous and and dropped pretty dramatically between the US and and France and there were some of these battles there was impressment on both sides but mostly the French this is bad and if it goes on long enough it could lead to a actual War but it didn't there's a reason it stops in 1800.

**[6:53]:** you see Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte overthrew the French government 1799. and he realized that continued bad relations with the U.S was detrimental to both neither side benefited from any of this so he reaches out to Adams and what they conclude is the convention of eighteen hundred yet another very high resolution version of this painting or a painting I've actually stood in front of the original version of that I could have actually reached out and touched it um it's pretty cool experience it's at uh Napoleon's first wife's mansion outside of Paris and being me I stood up pictures or I took a picture my wife took a picture of me uh I was standing in front of it pointing the opposite direction of him then I'd turn around and look at it in the second picture and then I point the right direction in the third picture because I'm a goober and my my wife allows me to be a Cooper not allow it's not like she

**[7:56]:** would you know what I mean by that like she's all for it um what's the convention of 1800 do well it ended the undeclared naval war and with France and they promised free trade with each other essentially like Jay's Treaty it prevented a full-scale war with France that the US would not win though there's no you know it's not quite a treaty but there were still agreements on each side but it has the same effect it

**[8:26]:** prevented war with France now like Washington who was criticized and became unpopular Adams also faced backlash from this time from his own party because remember Washington wasn't of a party though Adam's lack of will to go to war will help I wonder what will be one of the determining factors of why he loses re-election this same year in 1800. so foreign policy for Adams was not going well and he almost the country almost went to war because of the failure of the XYZ Affair it's that's a little more complicated than I than I've described that's the the you know the basic version you get the the idea um code negotiations went South they fought this undeclared war the quasi-war and then because Napoleon looked around and said well this is this is stupid and like two little kids went you want to be friends yeah we'll be friends and that's really foreign policy under Adams face the same situation as Washington didn't really handle it well but it ended up the same in the end no war

**[9:35]:** no real changes as far as trade or impressment or any of that stuff but war was prevented and that's the important thing and that's foreign policy under Adam so we're going to flip back to domestic policy and we're going to look at the outcomes of all of this foreign policy with the French under Adams the outcomes of that back at home