, managed, however,
to stir the anger of Republicans and Federalists alike. It regarded the
Jay treaty as a rebuke to France and a flagrant violation of obligations
solemnly registered in the treaty of 1778. Accordingly it refused to
receive the American minister, treated him in a humiliating way, and
finally told him to leave the country. Overlooking this affront in his
anxiety to maintain peace, Adams dispatched to France a commission of
eminent men with instructions to reach an understanding with the French
Republic. On their arrival, they were chagrined to find, instead of a
decent reception, an indirect demand for an apology respecting the past
conduct of the American government, a payment in cash, and an annual
tribute as the price of continued friendship. When the news of this
affair reached President Adams, he promptly laid it before Congress,
referring to the Frenchmen who had made the demands as "Mr. X, Mr. Y,
and Mr. Z."

This insult, coupled with the fact that French privateers, like the
British, were preying upon American commerce, enraged even the
Republicans who had been loudest in the profession of their French
sympathies. They forgot their wrath over the Jay treaty and joined with
the Federalists in shouting: "Millions for defense, not a cent for
tribute!" Preparations for war were made on every hand. Washington was
once more called from Mount Vernon to take his old position at the head
of the army. Indeed, fighting actually began upon the high seas and went
on without a formal declaration of war until the year 1800. By that time
the Directory had been overthrown. A treaty was readily made with
Napoleon, the First Consul, who was beginning his remarkable career as
chief of the French Republic, soon to be turned into an empire.

=Alien and Sedition Laws.=--Flushed with success, the Federalists
determined, if possible, to put an end to radical French influence in
America and to silence Republican opposition. They therefore passed two
drastic laws in the summer of 1798: the Alien and Sedition Acts.

The first of these measures empowered the President to expel from the
country or to imprison any alien whom he regarded as "dangerous" or "had
reasonable grounds to suspect" of "any treasonable or secret
machinations against the government."

The second of the measures, the Sedition Act, penalized not only those
who attempted to stir up unlawful combinations against the government
but also every one who wro