Self-Defense or offense?

SELF-DEFENSE OR OFFENSE?

At the end of the 18th century, an undeclared war was going on between the United States and France because of the recent XYZ affair; triggering a positive reaction by Federalists like Fisher Ames to convince the authorities to make the war official. Not knowing what to do, President John Adams appointed former-President George Washington as commander of the army to hopefully resolve the issue with France through diplomacy (as was Washington's stance).

A close friend of Essex Junto, a group of influential Federalists, Fisher Ames stood out as an offensive speaker to positively press forward with the idea of declaration of war against France. After all, they had begun to cheat the United States from its international trades with them, press their laws on the United States when it had not agreed to abide by them, and even destroy United States merchant and military vessels with the intent to convert its crew for its own bidding. There was no way an upstanding man would allow these events to occur without at least attempting to pursue a formal and just war with the parties involved, even if it included constant urging to all in power to make such actions occur.

It had seemed that ambiguity was arise in the forming nation, and was still establishing a central ideal for political issues to which it had no precedent. Would the strategy be to declare to the public a message of brutal warfare against a savage nation? Or the protection of the United States and its freedoms by a self-defensive action of declaring war against its former ally? Both would be approached vigorously by Ames to attempt to inform the public and gather a central and nationalized view in order to succeed against these heinous acts going on in its own waters. The eminent disasters of war and possible brutality to come would surely scare the citizens, so a new twist was added to excite the public opinion (Bowman).

2

Impatiently, Ames and his followers encouraged head representatives such as Secretary of State Timothy Pickering to move for an official and immediate declaration of war against France. Pickering was not immediately convinced by Ames and his men, though his word was vital in the eventual declaration of war that would soon follow additional actions taken by France to heighten the hatred in the United States. Their efforts both succeeded and failed in various ways. To declare the war would be to voluntarily change the United States' condition, which, however urgent the intentions could be, would leave a door open for blame on the government, something Federalists like Ames were not looking forward to (Ames).

No matter the actual decision of Congress on the matter, Ames continued to enact measures of force to persuade the President and his cabinet to supply them with enough resources to get their message across to the entire country. Self-defense was the key in the matter, and after the XYZ affair's events had taken place, the United States' offensive grip had loosened, allowing the French to perform their cheap naval stunts in order to scare and detriment the country. War was frowned upon, and by succombing to offensive tactics would be harsh to the public opinion, allowing the oppositional parties to show weakness and brutality in the Federalist ideals.

Bringing a nation together was the goal of such men, and by stating the intense need for declaration of war, Ames would hope to express his message of seriousness to all. Negotiation was not sought after by the Federalists in this time, and the only way to restore peace was to inherit it by acts of of war, to show the enemies that there was no way to move the new nation from its foothold in the international soil. Spoils of the war were already clearly seen, as the victor would be able to hold the enemy's head above the world and should that country be the United States, it would prove to show that the nation was not at all allowing even ancient monarch-ruled powers to take it over. But should that country be France, it would at least show by declaring war on the United States' side, that they were not hesitating to put out all of their effort into standing up for what