The Postal Service Act, a piece of United States federal legislation that establishes the United States Post Office Department, is signed into law by President George Washington on February 20, 1792.

William Goddard, a Patriot printer frustrated that the royal postal service was unable to reliably deliver his Pennsylvania Chronicle to its readers or deliver critical news for the paper to Goddard, had laid out a plan for the "Constitutional Post" before the Continental Congress on October 5, 1774.

Congress had waited to act on the plan until after the Battle of Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775.

Benjamin Franklin, who had promoted Goddard’s plan, had been appointed as the first postmaster general under the Continental Congress beginning on July 26, 1775, nearly one year before the Congress declared independence from the British Crown.

Franklin's son-in-law, Richard Bache, had taken over the position on November 7, 1776, when Franklin became an American emissary to France.

Franklin had already made a significant contribution to the postal service in the colonies while serving as the postmaster of Philadelphia from 1737 and as joint postmaster general of the colonies from 1753 to 1774.

He was dismissed as colonial postmaster general after the publication of private letters of Massachusetts Royal Governor Thomas Hutchinson in Massachusetts; Franklin had admitted to acquiring the letters (probably from a third party, and not in any sort of official capacity) and sending them to Massachusetts.

While postmaster, Franklin streamlined postal delivery with properly surveyed and marked routes from Maine to Florida (the origins of Route 1), instituted overnight postal travel between the critical cities of New York and Philadelphia and created a standardized rate chart based upon weight and distance.

Samuel Osgood held the postmaster general's position in New York City from 1789, when the U.S. Constitution came into effect, until the government moved to Philadelphia in 1791.

Timothy Pickering took over and, about a year later, the Postal Service Act gives his post greater legislative legitimacy and more effective organization.

Pickering will continue in the position until 1795, when he briefly serves as secretary of war, before becoming the third U.S. secretary of state.

Because news is considered crucial to an informed electorate, the 1792 law distributes newspapers to subscribers for one penny up to one hundred miles and one and a half cents over on hundred miles; printers can send their newspapers to other newspaper publishers for free.

Postage for letters, by contrast, costs between six and twenty-five cents depending on distance.

While the American diplomats are in Europe, President Adams is considering his options in the event of the commission's failure.

His cabinet has urged that the nation's military be strengthened, including the raising of a twenty thousand man army and the acquisition or construction of ships of the line for the navy.

He has no substantive word from the commissioners until March 1798, when the first dispatches revealing the French demands and negotiating tactics arrive.

The commission's apparent failure is duly reported to Congress, although Adams keeps secret the mistreatment (lack of recognition and demand for a bribe) of the diplomats, seeking to minimize a warlike reaction.

His cabinet is divided on how to react: the general tenor is one of hostility toward France, with Attorney General Charles Lee and Secretary of State Timothy Pickering arguing for a declaration of war.

Democratic-Republican leaders in Congress, believing Adams has exaggerated the French position because he seeks war, unite with hawkish Federalists to demand the release of the commissioners' dispatches.

On March 20, Adams turns them over, with the names of some of the French actors redacted and replaced by the letters W, X, Y, and Z.

The use of these disguising letters leads the business to immediately become known as the "XYZ Affair.

The release of the dispatches produces exactly the response Adams had feared.

Federalists call for war, and Democratic-Republicans are left without an effective argument against them, having miscalculated the reason for Adams' secrecy.

Congress authorizes the acquisition of twelve frigates, and makes other appropriations to increase military readiness.

Despite calls for a formal war declaration, Adams steadfastly refuses to ask Congress for one.

On July 7, 1798, Congress had annuls the 1778 Treaty of Alliance, and two days later authorizes attacks on French warships.

Federalists use the dispatches to question the loyalty of pro-French Democratic-Republicans; this attitude contributes to the passage, on July 14, 1798, of the Alien and Sedition Acts, restricting the movements and actions of foreigners, and limiting speech critical of the United States government.

Under the new law, it is a federal crime to write, publish, or utter false or malicious statements about the government.

Federalists are otherwise divided on the question of war, and the Democratic-Republicans paint hawkish Federalists as warmongers seeking to undermine the republic by military means.

When news reaches France of the publication of the dispatches and the ensuing hostile reaction, the response is one of fury.

Talleyrand is called to the Directory to account for his role in the affair.

He denies all association with the informal negotiators, and enlists the assistance of Gerry in exposing the agents whose names had been redacted, a charade Gerry agrees to participate in.

In exchange Talleyrand confirms privately to Gerry that the agents are in fact in his employ, and that he is, contrary to statements made to the Directory, interested in pursuing reconciliation.

President Adams will later write that Talleyrand's confession to Gerry is significant in his decision to continue efforts to maintain peace.

Elbridge Gerry is placed in a difficult position upon his return to the United States.

Federalists, spurred by John Marshall's accounts of their disagreements, criticize him for abetting the breakdown of the negotiations.

These bitterly harsh and partisan comments turn Gerry against the Federalists, and he will eventually end up joining with the Democratic-Republicans in 1800.

Elbridge Gerry, in his private report on the XYZ affair to President Adams in 1799, claims credit for maintaining the peace, and for influencing significant changes in French policy that lessen the hostilities and eventually brings a peace treaty.

The warlike attitude of the United States and the start of the Quasi-War (a naval war between the two countries that is fought primarily in the Caribbean) persuades Talleyrand that he had miscalculated in his dealings with the commissioners.

President Adams had nominated Congressman Marshall as Secretary of War on May 7, 1800, but had withdrawn the nomination five days later, instead naming him Secretary of State, as a replacement for Timothy Pickering.

Confirmed by the United States Senate on May 13, Marshall takes office on June 6, 1800.

As Secretary of State, Marshall directs the negotiation of the Convention of 1800, which ends the Quasi-War with France and brings peace to the nation.

President Adams, in response to the diplomatic overtures Talleyrand had made to William Vans Murray in The Hague, had sent negotiators to France in 1799 who eventually negotiate an end to hostilities with the Treaty of Mortefontaine, lor Convention of 1800, (whose negotiations are managed in part by John Marshall, Secretary of State) on September 30.

This agreement is made with First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte, who had overthrown the Directory in the Coup of 18 Brumaire in November 1799, and it will be ratified by the United States Senate in December 1801.