Nov 04, 2010 - Sale 2228

Sale 2228 - Lot 20

Price Realized: $ 2,460
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 3,500 - $ 5,000
XYZ AFFAIR: PINCKNEY SENT HOME PICKERING, TIMOTHY. Autograph Letter Signed, as Secretary of State, to John Jay ("Sir"), acknowledging receipt of his letter concerning [Thomas?] Greenleaf's newspaper and sending a copy of the Gazette of the United States [not present] containing a related article, reporting that [Charles Cotesworth] Pinckney had been ordered to leave France on the day that news reached Paris of Napoleon's victory over [József] Alvinczi, adding that [James] Monroe and Pinckney had met in Holland in January for an unknown reason, and noting in a postscript that the information in the enclosures from Holland had been authenticated. 1 page, 4to; minor scattered foxing, even toning overall, faint minor staining affecting signature, folds, remnants of prior mounting at corners verso. Philadelphia, 26 April 1797
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". . . The day after the accounts of Buonaparte's last victory over Alvinzy reached Paris (say Jan'y 26) Gen'l Pinckney received the Directory's orders to leave the Territories of France. On the 5th of February he left Paris, and arrived at Amsterdam the 17th. He will remain there till he receives instructions from our government. Mr. Monroe had in January made a journey to Holland--for what purpose is not intimated. Gen'l Pinckney met him, returning to Paris, between Bouchain & Cambray. Monroe told him he intended to embark in about 3 weeks at Havre or Bordeaux for America, & if possible land in New-Hampshire, as he had never seen the Eastern States."
In July of 1796, the French Directory refused to recognize the U.S. minister to France Charles C. Pinckney, who consequently left France for Holland in February of 1797. Pinckney later returned to France accompanied by a special commission, and when French ministers (referred to publicly by John Adams as Messrs. "X," "Y," and "Z") initmated that a large bribe might improve relations (the "XYZ Affair"), Pinckney indignantly refused, escalating tensions between the countries and contributing to the outbreak of the Franco-American Naval War ("Quasi War"; 1798-1800).