RC (MWA:Abigail Adams Letters).

That is, Cranch’s letter to AA of 23 Feb., above.

Five dispatches from the American commissioners to France reached Philadelphia on 4 March. The four dated 22 Oct., 8 and 27 Nov., and 24 Dec. 1797 detailed what became known as the XYZ Affair, so-called for the letters used to represent the names of the French agents who attempted to bribe the commissioners—Jean Hottinguer, Pierre Bellamy, and Lucien Hauteval—as well as Nicolaas Hubbard, who was designated W. The dispatches described meetings with these unofficial agents of the French foreign minister, Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, who demanded as the basis of any negotiation a payment of £50,000 sterling for Talleyrand, a loan to the French government of 32 million florins, and an apology for certain statements in JA’s 16 May message to Congress. Refusing to meet these demands or to continue negotiations through unofficial channels, the commissioners sent a letter directly to Talleyrand in early November reiterating their desire to resolve the differences between the two countries. When Talleyrand, who believed it served France to draw out negotiations, still had not responded by the end of December, even as his agents continued to demand payment, the commissioners prepared another letter requesting the government to open formal negotiations or to grant them passports for departure.

The enclosure AA mentions has not been found but was likely the Philadelphia Gazette of the United States, 5 March 1798, which printed JA’s message to Congress of that day, along with the fifth dispatch. Dated 8 Jan. the letter reported the impending French decree against neutral shipping and reiterated the commissioners’ belief that the French government would never receive them. In his message to Congress JA explained that while the commissioners had encoded their other letters and time was needed to decipher them, their letter of 8 Jan. was of such importance to the country that he believed that it was necessary to communicate it immediately (Stinchcombe, XYZ Affair , p. 4, 44–46; Amer. State Papers, Foreign Relations , 2:150–151, 157–168).

In a letter of 22 Feb. to AA, Richard Cranch noted his surprise that feelings of suspicion and distrust toward the government and its actions had taken root among Americans, a trend he attributed mainly to French influence (Adams Papers).

Paints used for home interiors were prepared by grinding individual pigments into boiled oil, usually linseed oil, which had been augmented with lead to decrease drying time. Copal varnish or turpentine was then added (Abbott Lowell Cummings and Richard M. Candee, “Colonial and Federal America: Accounts of Early Painting Practices,” in Roger W. Moss, ed., Paint in America: The Colors of Historic Buildings, N.Y., 1994, p. 38; OED ).

RC (MHi:Smith-Carter Family Papers); endorsed: “Philaa. 5 March 98 / A. Adams—” and “answd. 21st.”

See note 6, below.

On 16 Nov. 1797 Charles Cotesworth Pinckney wrote a letter to his brother-in-law Edward Rutledge (1749–1800), a member of the South Carolina legislature, in which he despaired of the commissioners achieving their aims and reported that French attacks against American shipping continued unabated. The letter was enclosed in another of 17 Nov. to John Rutledge Jr., Edward’s nephew and a member of the House, with instructions that its contents be shared with his fellow congressmen and Timothy Pickering (MHi:Pickering Papers; ANB ; Biog. Dir. Cong. ).

An excerpt of AA’s letter, beginning with “This morning for the first time” and continuing to this point, was printed in the Boston Price-Current, 15 March 1798, as “Extract of letter from Philadelphia, dated March 5, ’98.” Pinckney’s and Edward Rutledge’s names were withheld, however, and the document was instead referred to as “a private letter, from Paris.”

“They order, said I, this matter better in France” (Laurence Sterne, A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy. By Mr. Yorick, 2 vols., London, 1768, 1:1).

A dinner celebrating George Washington’s birthday was held at the Boston Concert Hall on 22 February. Reported in the Boston Columbian Centinel, 24 Feb., several toasts were made in support of the administration and Federalists, particularly in reference to the Lyon-Griswold affair, among them: “The Hon. Roger Griswold, and the fifty-two Gentlemen in Congress:— May their exertions to rid the National Legislature of a beastly character, be remembered by their constituents.”

In his letter to AA of 25 Feb. (Adams Papers), Smith commented on the Lyon-Griswold affair and the Adamses’ requests for supplies. He also described a dinner he had attended with John (Juan) Stoughton (1745–1820), the Spanish consul at Boston, and with “the Govr &c &c. & a large company.” Smith informed AA that “after dinner the Consul in a formal manner, inform’d the company, that he had the pleasure to announce to them officially, that the posts on the Missisippi wou’d be deliver’d up in March & all 440 disputes adjusted.” In accordance with the terms of the Pinckney Treaty, some Spanish frontier forts were evacuated in March, but it was not until 24 April that Carlos Martínez de Irujo informed Pickering that Spain would fully abide by the terms of the treaty (Boston Repertory, 29 Jan. 1820; Abernethy, The South in the New Nation , p. 216; Gerard H. Clarfield, Timothy Pickering and American Diplomacy, 1795–1800, Columbia, Mo., 1969, p. 138).

An excerpt of a letter from Elbridge Gerry to his sister-in-law Helen Thompson, dated 3 Jan. 1798, was printed in the Boston Federal Gazette, 25 Feb., and reprinted in the Philadelphia Gazette, 5 March. It reported that there was little hope that the French government would receive the American commissioners and that their residence in Paris would be brief. Andrew Brown Jr. (1774–1847) became the publisher of the Philadelphia Gazette when his father Andrew Brown Sr. died in 1797 (Rush, Letters , 2:792; Gerry, Letterbook , p. 15, 29–30).