Quasi-War
The Quasi-War was an undeclared war fought almost entirely at sea between the United States and France from 1798 to 1800, which broke out during the beginning of John Adams's presidency. After the French Monarchy was abolished in September 1792, the United States refused to continue repaying its large debt to France, which had supported the U.S. during its own War for Independence. The U.S. claimed that the debt had been owed to a previous regime. France was also outraged over the Jay Treaty and that the United States was actively trading with Britain, with whom France was at war. In response, France authorized privateers to conduct attacks on American shipping, seizing numerous merchant ships and ultimately leading the U.S. to retaliate.
The war was called "quasi" because it was undeclared. It involved two years of hostilities at sea, in which both navies and privateers attacked the other's shipping in the West Indies. Many of the battles involved famous naval officers such as Stephen Decatur, Silas Talbot and William Bainbridge. The unexpected fighting ability of the newly re-established U.S. Navy, which concentrated on attacking the French West Indian privateers, together with the growing weaknesses and final overthrow of the ruling French Directory, led the French foreign minister, Talleyrand, to reopen negotiations with the U.S. At the same time, Adams feuded with Alexander Hamilton over control of the Adams administration. Adams took sudden and unexpected action, rejecting the anti-French hawks in his own party and offering peace to France. In 1800 he sent William Vans Murray to France to negotiate peace; the Federalists cried betrayal. Hostilities ended with the signing of the Convention of 1800.
Background
When the United States won its independence it no longer had Britain's protection and therefore had the task of protecting its own ships and interests at sea. There were few American ships capable of defending the American coastline while trying to protect its merchant ships at sea. The Kingdom of France was a crucial ally of the United States in the American Revolutionary War. In March 1778, France signed a treaty of alliance with the rebelling colonists against Great Britain and had loaned the new Republic large sums of money. However, Louis XVI of France was deposed in September 1792. The monarchy was abolished. A year later, Louis was executed.In 1794 the American government reached an agreement with Great Britain in the Jay Treaty, which was ratified the following year. It resolved several points of contention between the United States and Britain that had lingered since the end of the American Revolution. The treaty encouraged bilateral trade and enabled expanded trade between the United States and Britain, stimulating the American economy. From 1794 to 1801, the value of American exports nearly tripled, from US$33 million to $94 million. But the Jeffersonian Democratic-Republicans, who were pro-France, always denigrated the Jay Treaty.
The United States declared neutrality in the conflict between Great Britain and revolutionary France; and Congress passed legislation for a trade deal with Great Britain. When the U.S. refused to continue repaying its debt, saying that the debt was owed to the previous government, not to the French First Republic, French outrage led to a series of responses. First, France authorized privateers to seize U.S. ships trading with Great Britain, and taking them back to port as prizes to be sold. Next, the French government refused to receive Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, the new U.S. Minister, when he arrived in Paris in December 1796, severing diplomatic relations. In President John Adams's annual message to Congress at the close of 1797, he reported on France's refusal to negotiate a settlement and spoke of the need "to place our country in a suitable posture of defense". Adams offered Washington a commission as lieutenant-general on July 4, 1798, and as commander-in-chief of the armies raised for service in that conflict. In April 1798, President Adams informed Congress of the "XYZ Affair", in which French agents demanded a large bribe before engaging in substantive negotiations with United States diplomats.
Meanwhile, French privateers inflicted substantial losses on American shipping. On 21 February 1797, Secretary of State Timothy Pickering told Congress that during the previous eleven months, France had seized 316 U.S. merchant ships. French marauders cruised the length of the Atlantic seaboard virtually unopposed. The United States government had nothing to combat them, as it had abolished the navy at the end of the Revolutionary War, and its last warship was sold in 1785. The United States had only a flotilla of small Revenue-Marine cutters and a few neglected coastal forts.
Increased depredations by French privateers led to the government in 1798 establishing the Department of Navy and the U.S. Marine Corps to defend the expanding American merchant fleet. Benjamin Stoddert was appointed as Secretary of Navy. Congress authorized the president to acquire, arm, and man not more than twelve ships of up to twenty-two guns each. Several merchantmen were immediately purchased and refitted as ships of war.
Congress rescinded the treaties with France on 7 July 1798, and two days later Congress passed legislation authorizing the use of military force against French warships in American waters.
On 16 July, Congress appropriated funds "to build and equip the three remaining frigates begun under the Act of 1794":
, launched at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on 15 August 1799;, launched at Gosport Shipyard, Virginia, on 2 December 1799; and, launched at New York, New York, on 10 April 1800. To make the most effective use of his limited resources, Secretary Stoddert established a policy that American forces would be concentrated on attacks against French forces in the Caribbean, where France still had colonies, though at times he had to grant merchant ships' requests for escorts.
Naval engagements
The naval engagements of the Quasi-War primarily consisted of single-ship actions off the coast of the United States and in the Caribbean. At the beginning of the conflict, the U.S. Navy operated with a battle fleet of about, which patrolled the southern coast of the United States and throughout the Caribbean hunting down French privateers. French privateers generally resisted, as did, which was captured on 7 July 1798, by outside Egg Harbor, New Jersey. On 20 November, a pair of French frigates, Insurgente and Volontaire, captured the schooner, commanded by Lieutenant William Bainbridge; Retaliation would be recaptured on 28 June 1799.On 9 February 1799, the frigate captured the French Navy's frigate L'Insurgente and severely damaged the frigate La Vengeance, largely due to. By 1 July, under the command of Stephen Decatur, had been refitted and repaired and embarked on its mission to patrol the South Atlantic coast and West Indies in search of French ships which were preying on American merchant vessels.
On 1 January 1800, a convoy of American merchant ships and their escort, United States naval schooner, engaged a squadron of armed barges manned by French-allied Haitians known as picaroons off the coast of present-day Haiti. On 1 February, the American frigate unsuccessfully tried to capture the French frigate La Vengeance off the coast of Saint Kitts. In early May, Captain Silas Talbot organized a naval expedition to Puerto Plata on the island of Hispaniola in order to harass French shipping, capturing the Spanish coastal fort at Puerto Plata and a French corvette. Following the French invasion of Curaçao in July, the American sloops and began a blockade of the island in September that led to a French withdrawal. On 12 October, the frigate captured the corvette. On 25 October, the defeated the French brig Flambeau near the island of Dominica in the Caribbean Sea. Enterprise also captured eight privateers and freed eleven U.S. merchant ships from captivity, while captured the French privateers Deux Amis and Diane and liberated numerous American merchant ships.
American naval losses may have been light, but the French had successfully seized many American merchant ships by the war's end in 1800 – more than 2,000, according to one source.