Top Highlights

• Talleyrand’s intermediaries, X, Y, and Z, having invested heavily in U.S. businesses themselves, wanted to preserve peace. However, emboldened by France’s victories in its ongoing war with Britain, X, Y, and Z increased the amount of the requested U.S. loan and even threatened a military invasion of America if the U.S. diplomats refused to agree.
• Sure enough, as soon as they arrived, the American trio was told they would not be allowed to meet face-to-face with the French Foreign Minister and chief diplomat, the flamboyant and unpredictable Maurice de Talleyrand. Instead, they were met by Talleyrand’s intermediaries
• X, Y, and Z told the Americans that Talleyrand would meet with them only if they agreed to satisfy three conditions: The United States had to agree to provide France with a substantial low-interest loan. The United States had to agree to pay all claims of damages filed against France by owners of American merchant ships seized or sunk by the Frenc...
• When the U.S. diplomats held their ground and refused to agree to the French demands, Talleyrand finally met with them. While he dropped his demands for a loan and a bribe, he refused to put an end to French seizures of American merchant ships. While Americans Pinckney and Marshall prepared to leave France, Elbridge Gerry decided to remain, hoping ...
• While pro-war Federalists urged Congress to support him, Democratic-Republican leaders distrusted his motives and demanded that he make the diplomatic correspondence from Paris public.

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