Jefferson, Thomas, 1743-1826. The Jeffersonian Cyclopedia
Thomas Jefferson Collection
Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia Library

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9195. X. Y. Z. PLOT, Artful misrepresentation of. —

The most artful misrepresentations of the contents of these papers have been published, and have produced such a shock in the republican mind, as has never been seen since our independence. We are to dread the effects of this dismay till their fuller information. 519 —

TITLE: To James Madison.
EDITION: Washington ed. iv, 233.
EDITION: Ford ed., vii, 236.
PLACE: Philadelphia ,
DATE: April. 1798

9196. X. Y. Z. PLOT, Astonishment over. —

The public mind appears still in a state of astonishment. There never was a moment in which the aid of an able pen was so important to place things in their just attitude. On this depend the inchoate movement in the eastern mind, and the fate of the elections in that quarter. [* * *] I would not propose to you such a task on any ordinary occasion. But be assured that a well-digested analysis of these papers would now decide the future turn of things, which are at this moment on the creen. —

TITLE: To James Madison.
EDITION: Washington ed. iv, 234.
EDITION: Ford ed., vii, 237.
PLACE: Philadelphia ,
DATE: April. 1798

9197. X. Y. Z. PLOT, Delusion through.

— There is a most respectable part of our State [Virginia] who have been enveloped in the X. Y. Z. delusion, and who destroy our [Col 2] unanimity for the present moment. This disease of the imagination will pass over, because the patients are essentially republican. Indeed, the doctor is now on his way to cure it, in the guise of a tax gatherer. But give time for the medicine to work, and for the repetition of stronger doses, which must be administered. —

TITLE: To John Taylor.
EDITION: Washington ed. iv, 259.
EDITION: Ford ed., vii, 309.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: 1798

9198. X. Y. Z. PLOT, Delusion through. [continued].

There is real reason to believe that the X. Y. Z. delusion is wearing off, and the public mind beginning to take the same direction it was getting into before that measure. Gerry's dispatches will tend strongly to open the eyes of the people. Besides this several other impressive circumstances will be bearing on the public mind. The Alien and Sedition laws as before, the direct tax, the additional army and navy, an usurious loan to set these follies on foot, a prospect of heavy additional taxes as soon as they are completed, still heavier taxes if the government forces on the war recruiting officers lounging at every court-house and decoying the laborer from his plow. —

TITLE: To James Monroe.
EDITION: Washington ed. iv, 265.
EDITION: Ford ed., vii, 320.
PLACE: Philadelphia ,
DATE: Jan. 1799

9199. X. Y. Z. PLOT, Delusion through. [Further continued].

The violations of the Constitution, propensities to war, to expense, and to a particular foreign connection [Great Britain] , which we have lately seen, are becoming evident to the people, and are dispelling that mist which X. Y. Z. had spread before their eyes. —

TITLE: To Edmund Pendleton.
EDITION: Washington ed. iv, 287.
EDITION: Ford ed., vii, 356.
PLACE: Philadelphia ,
DATE: Feb. 1799

9200. X. Y. Z. PLOT, Federalists and. —

When Pinckney, Marshall, and Dana were nominated to settle our differences with France, it was suspected by many, from what was understood of their dispositions, that their mission would not result in a settlement of differences, but would produce circumstances tending to widen the breach, and to provoke our citizens to consent to a war with that nation, and union with England. Dana's resignation and your appointment gave the first gleam of hope of a peaceable issue to the mission. For it was believed that you were sincerely disposed to accommodation; and it was not long after your arrival there, before symptoms were observed of that difference of views which had been suspected to exist. In the meantime, however, the aspect of our government towards the French Republic had become so ardent, that the people of America generally took the alarm. To the southward, their apprehensions were early excited. In the eastern States also, they at length began to break out. Meetings were held in many of your towns, and addresses to the government agreed on in opposition to war. The example was spreading like a wildfire. Other meetings were called in other places, and a general concurrence of sentiment against the apparent inclinations of the government was imminent; when, most critically for the government, the [X. Y. Z.] despatches of October 22d, prepared by your colleague Marshall, with a view to their being made public, dropped into their laps. It was truly a godsend to them, and they made the most of it. Many thousands of copies were printed and dispersed gratis, at the public expense; and the zealots for war cooperated so heartily, that there were instances of single individuals who printed and dispersed ten or twelve thousand copies at their own expense. The odiousness of the corruption supposed in those papers excited a general and high indignation among the people. Unexperienced in such maneuvres, they did not permit themselves even to suspect that the

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[Col 1] turpitude of private swindlers might mingle itself unobserved, and give its own hue to the communications of the French government, of whose participation there was neither proof nor probability. It served, however, for a time, the purpose intended. The people, in many places, gave a loose to the expressions of their warm indignation, and of their honest preference of war to dishonor. The fever was long and successfully kept up, and in the meantime, war measures as ardently crowded. Still, however, as it was known that your colleagues were coming away, and yourself to stay, though disclaiming a separate power to conclude a treaty, it was hoped by the lovers of peace, that a project of treaty would have been prepared, ad referendum, on principles which would have satisfied our citizens, and overawed any bias of the government towards a different policy. But the expedition of the Sophia, and, as was supposed, the suggestions of the person charged with your dispatches, and his probable misrepresentations of the real wishes of the American people, prevented these hopes. They had then only to look forward to your return for such information, either through the Executive, or from yourself, as might present to our view the other side of the medal. The despatches of October 22d, 1797, had presented one face. That information, to a certain degree, is now received, and the public will see from your correspondence with Talleyrand, that France, as you testify, “was sincere and anxious to obtain a reconciliation, not wishing us to break the British treaty, but only to give her equivalent stipulations; and in general was disposed to a liberal treaty”. And they will judge whether Mr. Pickering's report shows an inflexible determination to believe no declarations the French government can make, nor any opinion which you, judging on the spot and from actual view, can give of their sincerity, and to meet their designs of peace with operations of war. —
TITLE: To Elbridge Gerry.
EDITION: Washington ed. iv, 270.
EDITION: Ford ed., vii, 330.
PLACE: Philadelphia ,
DATE: Jan. 1799

9201. X. Y. Z. PLOT, French government and. —

You know what a wicked use has been made of the French negotiation; and particularly the X. Y. Z. dish cooked up by Marshall, where the swindlers are made to appear as the French government. Art and industry combined have certainly wrought out of this business a wonderful effect on the people. Yet they have been astonished more than they have understood it, and now that Gerry's correspondence comes out, clearing the French government of that turpitude, and showing them “sincere in their dispositions for peace, not wishing us to break the British treaty, and willing to arrange a liberal one with us”, the people will be disposed to suspect they have been duped. But these communications are too voluminous for them, and beyond their reach. A recapitulation is now wanting [* * *] . Nobody in America can do it so well as yourself [* * *] . If the understanding of the people could be rallied to the truth on this subject, by exposing the dupery practiced on them, there are so many other things about to bear on them favorably for the resurrection of their republican spirit, that a reduction of the administration to constitutional principles cannot fail to be the effect. —

TITLE: To Edmund Pendleton.
EDITION: Washington ed. iv, 274.
EDITION: Ford ed., vii, 337.
PLACE: Philadelphia ,
DATE: 1799

9202. X. Y. Z. PLOT, War and. —

Young E. Gerry informed me some time ago that he had engaged a person to write the life of his father, and asked for any materials I could fur [Col 2] nish. I sent him some letters, but in searching for them I found two, too precious to be trusted by mail, of the date of 1801, January 15 and 20, in answer to one I had written him January 26, 1799, two years before. It furnishes authentic proof that in the X. Y. Z. mission to France, it was the wish of Pickering, Marshall, Pinckney and the Federalists of that stamp, to avoid a treaty with France and to bring on war, a fact we charged on them at the time and this lette proves, and that their X. Y. Z. report was cooked up to dispose the people to war. Gerry, their colleague, was not of their sentiment, and this is his statement of that transaction. During the two years between my letter and his answer, he was wavering between Mr. Adams and myself, between his attachment to Mr. Adams personally on the one hand, and to republicanism on the other; for he was republican, but timid and indecisive. The event of the election of 1800-1, put an end to his hesitations. —

TITLE: To James Madison.
EDITION: Ford ed., x, 245.
PLACE: Monticello
DATE: Jan. 1823