and at the
time it served the rapacious designs of the Directory. Europe was looted
wherever the arms of France prevailed, and the levying of tribute both on
public and on private account was the order of the day. Talleyrand was the
Minister of Foreign Affairs, and he treated the envoys with a mixture of
menace and cajolery. It was a part of his tactics to sever the Republican
member, Gerry, from his Federalist colleagues. Gerry was weak enough to be
caught by Talleyrand's snare, and he was foolish enough to attribute the
remonstrances of his colleagues to vanity. "They were wounded," he wrote,
"by the manner in which they had been treated by the Government of 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
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