Federalist Era - Foreign Affairs

Foreign Affairs

Jay's Treaty in 1794 was an essential marker and generally considered to be directly responsible for the full emergence of political parties in America in the First Party System, and clearly defining Federalist and Republican points of view on all political questions. Chief among the conflict was that any form of understanding between the United States and Great Britain would pose a threat to the Franco-American relations. The treaty averted war and increased trade, a positive outcome for both sides. It gained the major American requirement: British withdrawal from the posts in the Northwest Territory of America; wartime debts were sent for arbitration. The Republicans were furiously opposed to the Jay Treaty, and only Washington's intervention allowed it to pass. The Republicans charged that closer ties with Britain would undermine republican values and promote aristocracy, which they alleged was favored all along by the Federalists. Federalists said the country needed peace and prosperity, not another war with Britain. Voters lined up in the two parties based in large part on their opinion of the Jay Treaty.

XYZ Affair The XYZ Affair was a diplomatic incident that brought relations with France to an undeclared war. When Americans learned that the French demanded large bribes from the American delegation in order to continue negotiations, the political atmosphere quickly turned angry. Much of the Republican resistance to Adams' policies in Congress faded and Federalists and Adams greatly benefited from the surge of patriotic feeling. As tensions grew the Quasi-War of 1798 broke out between French and American warships and merchant ships. The nation went on a war footing, with new taxes, a new army (headed by Washington and Hamilton), and the Alien and Sedition Acts suppressing Republican dissenters. Republicans responded with the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions, calling for states to interpose against illegal acts of the national government. Adams broke with the main wing of his Federalist party and sent new negotiators to end the conflict in 1800. Together with the rise of Napoleon, the conflict served to significantly weaken the affection that America had previously held for France.