Millions for defense but not one penny for tribute" is incorrectly attributed to Thomas Jefferson. Actually the quote was made by Rep. Robert Goodloe Harper, chairman of the committee on ways and means in Congress, on June 18, 1798. President John Adams had sent representatives to France to try to keep the US from going to war with that country. French and British warships had been attacking Americans ships at sea and claimed the right to seize American vessels. Three French diplomats offered to negotiate a treaty if the US would pay a bribe (tribute) to the French foreign minister, Tallyrand. This episode became known in history as the XYZ affair because the French diplomats were referred to by these initials rather than their names. The affair generated anger in the US, which prompted Rep. Harper's famous words.
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For further discussion of the wording used by Pinckney and of the quotation frequently but mistakenly attributed to Pinckney—"Millions for defense, but not one cent for tribute," actually said by Robert Goodloe Harper—see The Home Book of Quotations, ed. Burton Stevenson, 10th ed., p. 63 (1967) and "Notes and Queries," South Carolina Historical and Genealogical Magazine, vol. 1, pp. 100–103, 178–79 (1901).
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