John Adams’s
Presidency
The Election of 1796
and Political Parties
• Federalist Party
• Democratic – Republican Party
Pages 212-213 in your textbook - “The Election of
1796”
What did Washington say
about political unity?
More…..
More….
John Adams
• Adams becomes the second President of the United
States in 1796.
• As was the custom at the time, Thomas Jefferson
becomes Vice President as he received the second highest
number of votes.
• Was a leading patriot
• Served as a foreign diplomat for the U.S.
• Most people, even his opponents, respected his hard
work, intelligence and honesty.
XYZ Affair
• The U.S. and France
• American merchant ships being seized by French warships
• French not happy with Jay’s treaty
• Adams sends delegates to France to negotiate
• The Bribe
• When the U.S. delegates arrived and requested a meeting
with the French foreign minister – Talleyrand, he refused and
sent three agents who demanded a bribe in order for the U.S.
delegates to meet with him.
• The Americans refused!
Public Opinion toward France Shifts
Britain looking on from on high
5 members of the Directory in France
Rest of the world
looking on
The XYZ affair - Maiden America ravaged by the French
Fallout from XYZ Affair
• Many Americans calling for war with France
• Hamilton, others thought U.S. could gain land
• “Millions for defense, but not one cent for tribute!”
• Adams feels that U.S. Army and Navy not strong
enough to fight a major power
• Sends new ministers instead
• Unpopular move, but….?
XYZ Affair
Federalists take control
• Public anger with France strengthens Federalists in
Congress
• Win majority of both houses in 1798
• Enacted laws that were restrictive to DemocraticRepublican rivals
• What did Washington warn about again?
• Oh yeah – political party disagreements.
• Forget political unity!
Alien and Sedition Acts
• To silence the
critics, the
Federalist
controlled
Congress enacted
coercive laws that
threatened
individual rights
and the party
system.
Alien and Sedition Acts
• Actually 4 coercive acts
• The Naturalization Act raised the residency
requirement to become a citizen from 5 to 14 years.
• The Alien Act authorized the deportation of
foreigners (this was actually two acts – Alien Friends
and Alien Enemies
• The Sedition Act prohibited the publication of
insults or malicious attacks on the president or
members of Congress.
Alien and Sedition Acts
• It was the Sedition Act that generated the most
controversy. Prosecutors arrested more than twenty
Republican newspaper editors and politicians,
accused them of sedition, and convicted and jailed a
number of them
Political cartoon of Congressman Lyon
(holding tongs), and later arrested
under the Sedition Acts brawling
with Congressman Roger Griswold.
“He that is not for us is
against us,” read the
Federalist Gazette of the
United States.
pasleybrothers.com
Your Thoughts
• Pair Share with your neighbor
• What is wrong with these acts?
• Be specific, write down some thoughts, and be ready to
share out to the class
What developed was a constitutional crisis. With
justification, Republicans charged that the Sedition
Act violated the First Amendment’s prohibition
against “abridging the freedom of speech, or of the
press.”
www.anh-usa.org
Opposition
The
th
10
Amendment?
• What about a violation of the 10th Amendment?
• What is the 10 Amendment?
• The powers not delegated to the United States by the
Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved
to the States respectively, or to the people.
• Why would the Democratic-Republicans say that the
acts violated this amendment?
Instead, Madison and Jefferson looked to state
legislatures for a solution. At their urging, the
Kentucky and Virginia legislatures issued
resolutions in 1798 declaring the Alien and
Seditions Acts to be “unauthoritative, void, and of
no force.”
www.nj.com
The resolution set forth a states’ rights
interpretation of the Constitution, asserting
that the states had a “right to judge” the
legitimacy of national laws.
www.xtimeline.com