France, and the difference which had been used in respect to me.”  Gerry’s conduct served to weaken and delay the negotiations, but he eventually united with his colleagues in a detailed report to the State Department, which was transmitted to Congress by the President on April 3, 1798.  In the original the names of the French officials concerned were written at full length in the Department cipher.  In making a copy for Congress, Secretary Pickering substituted for the names the terminal letters of the alphabet, and hence the report has passed into history as the X.Y.Z. dispatches.

The story, in brief, was that on arriving in Paris the envoys called on Talleyrand, who said that he was busy at that very time on a report to the Directory on American affairs, and in a few days would let them know how matters stood.  A few days later they received notice through Talleyrand’s secretary that the Directory was greatly exasperated by expressions used in President Adams’s address to Congress, that the envoys would probably not be received until further conference, and that persons might be appointed to treat with them.  A few more days elapsed, and then three persons presented themselves as coming from Talleyrand.  They were Hottinguer, Bellamy, and Hauteval, designated as X.Y.Z. in the communication to Congress.  They said that a friendly reception by the Directory could not be obtained unless the United States would assist France by a loan, and that “a sum of money was required for the pocket of the Directory and Ministers, which would be at the disposal of M. Talleyrand.”  This “douceur to the Directory,” amounting to approximately $240,000, was urged with great persistence as an indispensable condition of friendly relations.  The envoys temporized and pointed out that their Government would have to be consulted on the matter of the loan.  The wariness of the envoys made Talleyrand’s agents the more insistent about getting the “douceur.”  At one of the interviews Hottinguer exclaimed:—­ “Gentlemen, you do not speak to the point; it is money; it is expected that you will offer money.”  The envoys replied that on this point their answer had already been given. “‘No,’ said he, ’you have not:  what is your answer?’ We replied, ‘It is no; no; not a sixpence.’” This part of the envoys’ report soon received legendary embellishment, and in innumerable stump speeches it rang out as, “Not one cent for tribute; millions for defense!”

The publication of the X.Y.Z. dispatches sent rolling through the country a wave of patriotic feeling before which the Republican leaders quailed and which swept away many of their followers.  Jefferson held that the French Government ought not to be held responsible for “the turpitude of swindlers,” and he steadfastly opposed any action looking to the use of force to maintain American rights.  Some of the Republican members of Congress, however, went over to the Federalist side, and Jefferson’s party was presently reduced to a feeble and dispirited minority.  Loyal addresses rained upon Adams.  There appeared a new national song, Hail Columbia, which was sung all over the land and which was established in lasting popularity.  Among its well-known lines is an exulting stanza beginning: