Why did war hawks in congress vilify john adams following the xyz affair

Because he wanted to prevent war with France

Explanation:

War hawks refers to the group of people who wants to solve every foreign issues through military action. In government, These people tend to advocated and pressed the president to go into wars.

The xyz affair is caused by the acted of French navy that seized American merchant ships near their territory. At that time, This create a lot of economic damage to United States.

The war hawks in the government wanted to solve this problem with a full blown war with France. President John Adams on the other hand, did not war to happen. He wanted to solve this through diplomatic method. He does not wanted to cause necessary death between the countries involved.

Because of this, the war hawks started to vilify John Adams. They called him a spineless leader who did not want to stand up for this people.