Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The Quasi-War

Starting point is 00:00:00 In the big scheme of things, the United States is a rather young country. Yet, during its history, it has managed to declare war on a shockingly large number of European countries, including Britain, Spain, Germany, Italy, Austria, Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria. Yet, through all the turmoil, there is one country the U.S. has never gone to war with. France. Except for that one time when we sort of kind of did. Learn more about the quasi-war and how the U.S. sort of went to war with France without actually going to war with France on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. What if your perceptions about the past were wrong? ThruLine is a podcast that takes you back in time to uncover the parts of the story that may have gone unnoticed. It effectively turned day

Starting point is 00:01:01 into night and how it shaped the world now. Time travel with us every week on the ThruLine podcast from NPR. In previous episodes, In particular, the episode on the Battle of Yorktown, I noted how the United States owes its independence to France. If it weren't for the support of France during the Revolutionary War, the American colonists probably would never have won. Granted, France wasn't doing this out of the kindness of their heart, and it was really more a case of my enemy's enemy is my friend, but nonetheless, France's help was vital in the cause for independence. However, it wasn't generically France that assisted the United States. it was the king of France. All of the aid given to the colonists was done by the Ancian regime, which is the name given

Starting point is 00:01:52 to the system under the French monarchy. In return, the newly independent United States, who had just broken free of their king, served as an inspiration for the revolutionaries in France, who just a few years later started a revolution of their own. You'd think that these two new republics would be great friends, given how much they had in common. There were French supporters of America, like the Marquis de Lafayette, who actually fought in the Continental Army. And likewise, there were francophiles amongst the American founding fathers, including Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson. Both revolutions had similar intellectual

Starting point is 00:02:27 roots, and there were almost no major issues of contention between the two countries, given how far apart they were from each other. But that isn't what happened. Soon after the French Revolution began, tensions began to grow between the two reports. publics. The first thing that caused a strain in the relationship was the American suspension of debt payments to France in 1793 after King Louis XVI was executed on January 21st of that year. The United States Congress reasoned that with the execution of the king and the establishment of a republic, all agreements with the Ancian regime were null and void. The Americans argued that this didn't just apply to debts, but also to the treaty signed in 1778, which required the United

Starting point is 00:03:11 States to provide assistance in the defense of the French West Indies in exchange for France's support during the revolution. This was important because Britain joined the first coalition and began waging war with France in 1793 and France expected the support of the United States against the British. In 1794, the Congress passed the Neutrality Treaty of 1794 to ensure that they didn't get caught up in the growing European war. The J Treaty of 1794 made things even worse. The J Treaty was officially called the Treaty of Amnity, Commerce, and Navigation between his Britannic Majesty and the United States of America. John Jay, the first Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, negotiated it. The treaty was an important one for the young American

Starting point is 00:04:00 government, and it spelled out several things. First, the British removed forces from the Northwest territory, what we today would call the Midwest. Second, it smoothed out trade and commercial relations between the two countries and gave each country most favored nation trading status with the other. Third, it granted American farmers access to the Mississippi River, although not full navigation rights. Finally, it resolved many outstanding issues between the two countries, including debts incurred by American citizens to the British before the start of the war. The J Treaty and the Neutrality Act were both seen by France as blatant violations of the treaties that they signed in 1778.

Starting point is 00:04:39 The J Treaty was also highly controversial within the United States. It was supported by federalists like George Washington and Alexander Hamilton, who saw America's future economic interests aligned with Britain. However, opposed to the treaty were the anti-federalists such as Thomas Jefferson, who thought that the United States should have a foreign policy orientated more towards France. Starting in late 1796, France began to respond to these perceived snubs by seizing America, merchant ships bound for Great Britain. The French view was that these vessels were trading and abetting an enemy, so they were fair game. And this wasn't just a few ships either. From October 1796 to June 1797,

Starting point is 00:05:21 French privateers captured 316 ships, compromising 6% of the entire American merchant fleet, causing losses between $12 to $15 million. And this was at a time when a million dollars. was a whole lot of money. And the thing that was really annoying to the United States was that they couldn't do anything about it because at the time, they didn't have a Navy. The small continental Navy that existed during the Revolutionary War had been disbanded and the last ship was sold in 1785.

Starting point is 00:05:55 Without a Navy, there was nothing the Americans could do to protect their shipping on the open seas. So, absent a military solution, the Americans sought a diplomatic solution. In July 1797, the now President John Adams sent a delegation to France to try and resolve the issue. Adam sent a high-level delegation consisting of John Marshall of Virginia and Elbridge Gary of Massachusetts to work with the current ambassador to France, Charles Picney, of South Carolina. When the men arrived in France, they were discreetly contacted by individuals representing the French foreign minister, Charles Maurice de Talirand Perigot, who's usually just referred to as Tallirand. Talleyrand's representative requested substantial bribes and alone from the men before negotiations could begin. This sort of behavior was par for the course in Europe, and most representatives from European countries usually just paid the bribe, but the Americans were outraged.

Starting point is 00:06:53 After getting nowhere with Talleyrand, Marshall and Pickney left France in April of 1798. Gary stayed behind until he could be relieved by someone else with more authority because Talleyran told him flat out that, if he left, France would declare war. When the delegates got back to the United States, they debrief President Adams, who then prepared a memorandum to Congress explaining what had happened, replacing the names of the men who had reached out on behalf of Talleyrand with the letters X, Y, and Z. This became known as the X, Y, Z affair. The XYZ affair sparked a wave of anti-French sentiment in the United States. It also sparked demands for improving the defenses of the young country.

Starting point is 00:07:38 Robert Goodlow Harper, a representative from South Carolina, uttered the phrase that became a rallying cry, quote, millions for defense, but not one cent for tribute. While the United States didn't have a Navy, there were events that transpired several years earlier in 1794. United States merchant ships were preyed upon by pirates from the Barbary Coast of North Africa.

Starting point is 00:08:01 In response, Congress approved the creation of six large frigates. A frigate was a warship that only had one deck of guns. The first of these frigates, the USS United States, was launched on May 10, 1797. Later that year, the USS Constellation and the USS Constitution were also launched. The Constitution, which I previously did an episode on, is currently the world's oldest commissioned naval warship still afloat. In addition to the New Navy, President Adams proposed raising a 20,000 man army and the creation of larger, multi-deck gun ships, known as ships of the line. On June 18, Benjamin Stoddard was appointed the First Secretary of the Navy, and on July 7th,

Starting point is 00:08:44 Congress approved the use of force against French ships in American territorial waters, and also formerly nullified the treaties with France that the government had previously argued had been nullified with the execution of the king. This was actually a highly controversial measure. The U.S. Constitution had only been approved a decade earlier, and it clearly gave Congress Congress the power to declare war. However, this was not a declaration of war. This was authority for a limited action, and they really didn't want things to spill over into a wider conflict. Over time, over the years, the Supreme Court eventually approved the legality of such policing

Starting point is 00:09:21 actions, but this was the very first time that it became an issue. Because this was not a declaration of war, it was called a half-war or a quasi-war, which is how the conflict and the same episode got its name. In addition to the few frigates, there were also other vessels known as subscription ships, which were ships funded and built by individual U.S. cities, as well as revenue cutters, which were light ships that enforced U.S. trade policy. By this time, the British had been able to keep most of the French Navy in port or near the coast of France, leaving only lightly armed privateer ships to harass American ships in the Caribbean and off the coast of North America. The Americans began a concerted effort to attack the French privateers.

Starting point is 00:10:05 They conducted raids over the next two years in the Caribbean and along the coast, and the new Navy performed quite well. It resulted in the capture of many French ships and the liberation of dozens of American merchant ships that had been previously captured. There were a few notable sea battles. On February 9, 1799, the USS Constellation captured the 36-gun French frigate lay and sergent, and on February 2, 1800, the Constellation fought the large, our 52-gun frigate La Vengeance to a draw.

Starting point is 00:10:34 Domestically, the aftermath of the XYZ affair and the quasi-war resulted in the passage of the Alien and Sedition Acts, which were severe restrictions on the movement to foreigners on U.S. soil and on speech. The Alien and Sedition Acts are worthy of their own future episode, but it was one of the first laws that tested the Constitution and the powers of the Supreme Court. What eventually changed and brought about the end of hostilities was the rise of Napoleon Bonaparte. The entire affair with the Americans was nothing but a distraction to Napoleon.

Starting point is 00:11:06 After discussions of a private citizen by the name of George Logan, the French took unilateral steps to de-escalate the conflict. They lifted the embargo on the United States and freed captured seamen. The Adams administration, angered by the actions of a private citizen, immediately passed the Logan Act, which prevents private citizens from negotiating with governments that the United States has a conflict with, and the Logan Act is still in power today. Ignoring the actions of George Logan, President Adams sent a team of diplomats to France to negotiate with Napoleon's government and agreed to end the conflict with the Treaty of Mort Fontaine, also known as the Convention of 1800.

Starting point is 00:11:44 The treaty formerly ended the previous treaties between the United States and France and established the United States as a neutral party on the seas, thereby officially removing the United States as a possible belligerent in the Napoleonic Wars. What the treaty did not do was address the over $20 million in losses that American merchants and ship owners suffered at the hands of the French. While the American Navy fought well once they decided to actually join the fight in 1798, capturing 85 French privateers, their losses in total, including the previous years, were much greater. Approximately 2,000 merchant ships were seized or had their cargoes confiscated during the entire period. It's widely thought that the Treaty of Mort Fontaine laid the groundwork for the Louisiana purchase just a few years later. The quasi-war wasn't technically America's first war after independence, but it was their first military conflict that wasn't a declared war, the first of many that they would

Starting point is 00:12:45 have over the next 250 years. It also resulted in domestic changes such as the Alien and Sedition Act, which dramatically changed the direction of the Young Republic. But perhaps most of the most of the importantly, it was a low point in U.S. French relations, a point which the countries have never returned to in over 200 years. The executive producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Charles Daniel. The associate producers are Peter Bennett and Cameron Kiefer. I wanted to give a big thanks to everyone who supports a show on Patreon. Your support helps me put out a new show every day. And if you're interested in Everything Everywhere Daily merchandise, Patreon is currently the only place where it's

Starting point is 00:13:28 available. And if you'd like to talk to other listeners of the show and get notified to future episodes and projects, please join my Facebook group or Discord server. Links to everything are in the show notes.

Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The Quasi-War

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