The Directory not only refused to receive Charles C.
Pinckney, the new American minister, but gave him formal notice to retire from French territory, and even threatened him with subjection to police jurisdiction.

In view of this alarming situation, President Adams convened Congress.
The first session of the fifth Congress began at Philadelphia on Monday, May 15, 1797.

Jonathan Dayton was reelected speaker of the House.

Some new men now appeared on the field of national debate: Samuel Sewall and Harrison Gray Otis from Massachusetts, James A.Bayard from Delaware, and John Rutledge, Jr., from South Carolina.

Madison and Fisher Ames did not return, and their loss was serious to their respective parties.
Madison was incontestably the finest reasoning power, and Ames, as an orator, had no equal in our history until Webster appeared to dwarf all other fame beside his matchless eloquence.