Convention of 1800

Convention of 1800

The signing of the Treaty of Mortefontaine, September 30, 1800, by Victor Adam
Type	bilateral treaty
Signed	30 September 1800 (1800-09-30)
Location	Mortefontaine, France
Original signatories	France USA
Ratifiers	France USA

The Convention of 1800, 8 Stat. 178, also known as the Treaty of Mortefontaine, was a treaty between the United States of America and France to settle the hostilities that had erupted during the Quasi-War. The Quasi-War, waged primarily in the Caribbean, had existed since the American delegation to France, arriving in 1797, had been told that America had to pay $250,000 to see—not negotiate with—the French ambassador. This incident, known as the XYZ Affair, was scandalous in America, infuriating both the Hamiltonians (Federalists) and the Jeffersonians. French warships seized American merchant ships in the Caribbean, and American privateers retaliated against French shipping.

By 1800, both sides wanted the incident buried, and so the end of hostilities in the Caribbean generally proceeded as smoothly as the end of the French-American alliance. The French, at the time, were at war with the Second Coalition and did not want the neutral United States drawn in on either side; a belligerent America allied with France would be quickly crushed by the British navy while a neutral America would be able to supply the French with desperately needed grain. The United States, for the same reasons, wished to remain neutral. Since both parties had the same goal in mind, the Convention of 1800 resulted in a peaceful cessation of the alliance between the two countries (the alliance had no "expiration date" built in, so waiting until the alliance dissolved itself was impossible). U.S. President John Adams sent a commission composed of William Vans Murray, Oliver Ellsworth, and William Richardson Davie to negotiate the agreement.