Convention of 1800

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The Convention of 1800 was a meeting between the United States of America and France to terminate the alliance that had existed between them since 1778. The French, at the time, were at war with Britain and did not want the neutral United States drawn in on their side; a belligerent America 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).

US President John Adams sent a commission composed of William Vans Murray, Oliver Ellsworth, and William Richardson Davie to negotiate the end to both the alliance and the Quasi-War.

The Convention of 1800 also ended the undeclared Quasi-War between France and the United States in the Caribbean, which had existed since the American delegation to France, arriving in 1798, 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 and further flamed into war by "war hawk" politicians. American merchants in the Caribbean were seized by French warships, 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 Convention of 1800 meant the end of any American alliance with foreign countries. The United States, influenced by the farewell address of departing President George Washington, would not join an alliance with another nation for another century and a half.