Charles Cotesworth Pinckney
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Charles Cotesworth Pinckney was an American statesman, military officer and Founding Father who served as United States Minister to France from 1796 to 1797. A delegate to the Constitutional Conventio
Portrait by James Earl, 1795
c. 1773 portrait of Pinckney by Henry Benbridge
Portrait of Sarah by Benbridge
Engraving of Pinckney after an Edward Greene Malbone portrait
XYZ Affair
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The XYZ Affair was a political and diplomatic episode in 1797 and 1798, early in the presidency of John Adams, involving a confrontation between the United States and Republican France which led to th
A British political cartoon depicting the affair: The United States is represented by Columbia, who is being plundered by five Frenchmen, three of whom are wearing French cockades, one wearing the Phrygian cap – symbols of revolutionary, republican France. The figures grouped off to the right are other European countries; John Bull, representing Great Britain, sits laughing atop the white cliffs of Dover.
Charles Cotesworth Pinckney headed the American commission.
French Foreign Minister Talleyrand
Elbridge Gerry