Since the mid-1700s, foreign policy has been a topic of discussion for all political leaders. George Washington and his cabinet had to respond effectively to the demands of countries around the world. The French Revolution challenged America's supreme power, as Washington had to decide where loyalty to the United States would lie. Post-revolutionary foreign policy decisions were now made on the basis of moralistic or realist values. During the policymaking period, Washington delivered his Farewell Address, the Jay Treaty was signed into law, the XYZ Affair and the Quasi-War with France began, and the Treaty of Ghent was signed. John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and Henry Clay were three key players in deciding how to govern despite their opposition. Alarmed by the radicalism of the French Revolution, Hamilton believed that America's security and its economic system required friendship with Britain, clearly indifferent to the consequences for France. (Herring, George C.). The decision to remain neutral also caused more upset than appeal. The French were unhappy with the decision, as was Jefferson. The French and British began seizing American ships crossing the Atlantic, taking away goods and impressing sailors. These actions and seizures violated the Neutrality Proclamation, forcing Washington and Supreme Court Chief Justice John Jay to adopt new methods. Americans say Congress agreed to a war they were not prepared to fight. Federalists also feared that the war would throw the nation into the arms of Napoleon. “Early protests against the war, particularly in New England, often expressed a greater fear of a French alliance than of the war itself” (Hoey, John B). Federalists continued to oppose the war because they viewed it as an “offensive” war directed against Canada. Although willing to support a war to protect American commerce or to defend the country's borders, they refused to approve the conquest of Canada due to the stationing of English forces so close to their territory..