President Adams
John Adams
Video: The Presidency of John Adams
Foreign Policy
The XYZ Affair
The idea of war with France was popular with the American people upon learning of the XYZ Affair but President Adams refused to declare war, even against the wishes of those within his own party. Although a peaceful settlement with France was eventually determined, the impact of President Adams not declaring war made him extremely unpopular with the majority of the American people. |
Domestic Policies
Alien Acts: Extended the time it took to become an American citizen from five years to fourteen years. Gave congress the power to deport aliens who were deemed to be a threat to the nation. The act discouraged immigration and forced foreigners who lived in the country to leave. The act was aimed at French immigrants who tended to support the Democratic-Republicans.
Sedition Act: Made it a crime to publish scandalous criticisms against the government. The act was viewed as an attempt to silence the oppositional voices of the Democratic-Republicans. Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions: Democratic -Republicans protested the Sedition Act as a violation of free speech under the First Amendment. Resolutions were passed in Virginia and Kentucky that proclaimed the power of the states to rule the Alien and Sedition Acts as being null and void and led to a movement that believed states were authorized to nullify federal laws that acted against the wishes of the states. |
Election of 1800