The Next Time Someone Says "Without France, there'd be no America"...

...you can recall the information presented below:

When Adams took office in 1797, France presented his first challenge. The French had seen Jay's Treaty, between the US and Britain, as a signal that the US supported Britain in the ongoing war against France. The French had put off retribution, hoping for a Jefferson administration which might be more friendly toward France. Upon Jefferson's loss in the election, however, France began to seize American ships en route to British ports. After a year of this, the French had attacked and plundered over 300 American ships. As a further insult, France ordered that every American citizen captured aboard a British naval vessel be hanged.

Adams dispatched a peace commission to Paris to negotiate shortly after the beginning of these hostile activities. However, in what became known as the XYZ Affair, Charles de Tallyrand, the French foreign minister, refused to meet with the US delegation, instead sending three anonymous agents, X, Y, and Z. The agents delivered the message that Tallyrand would not begin talks until he received $250,000 for himself, and France received a $12 million loan. This widely publicized (in America) attempt at extortion aroused public outrage among the American people, some of whom called for war. Riding this tide, the Federalists overwhelmingly took the 1798 congressional elections.

SparkNotes