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
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.—
To James Madison.
Ford ed., x, 245.
(M.
Jan. 1823)
