The Rise of Political Parties& the XYZ Affair

Presentation created by Robert MartinezPrimary Source: America’s History (Henretta, Brody, Dumenil).Images as cited.

The appearance of Federalists and Republicans marked a new stage in

American politics, the rise of the First Party System.

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Although colonial legislatures had often divided temporarily into

factions based on family, ethnicity, or region, they did not form organized political parties.

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The new state and national constitutions made no provision for political parties. In

fact, most Americans thought parties unnecessary and even dangerous to the

government.

Following classical republican principles, American leaders maintained that voters and

legislators should act independently in the interest of the public as a

whole.

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Still the conflict in the 1790s over fiscal policies divided America’s

legislators, and popular sovereignty, which drew average citizens into

politics, fueled the division.

Most merchants, creditors, and urban artisans supported Federalist

policies, as did wheat-exporting slaveholders.

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The emerging Republican coalition was more diverse. It included southern tobacco and rice planters, western

farmers, Germans and Scots-Irish in the southern backcountry and subsistence

farmers in the Northeast.

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Party identity crystallized in 1796. To prepare for the presidential election, Federalist and Republican leaders

called in the states to discuss policies and nominate candidates.

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Federalist candidates triumphed in the national elections of 1796,

winning a majority in Congress and electing John Adams to the

presidency.

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Adams continued Hamilton’s pro-British foreign policy and reacted sharply to seizures of American

merchant ships by the French navy.

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When the French foreign minister Talleyrand solicited a loan and a bribe from American diplomats to stop the

seizures, Adams charged that Talleyrand’s agents, whom he dubbed

X,Y, and Z, had insulted America’s honor.

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Responding to the XYZ Affair, the Federalist controlled Congress cut off trade with France in 1798 and

authorized American privateers to seize French ships.

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The party conflict that had begun over Hamilton’s financial policies now extended to foreign affairs.

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