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The Presidency of John Adams Date ______ Binder Page ______ Name ___________________________________________________ Period _________ The Presidency of John Adams Date ________________ The second president of the United States was John Adams. He had been the ​ ​ ​ vice-president for George Washington. Even though he had been friends with Thomas ​ ​ Jefferson and helped him write the Declaration of Independence, he was a Federalist and ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ tended to agree with Alexander Hamilton. ​ ​ The war between Britain and France was continuing. Federalists believed the United ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ States should help Britain because of the close historical ties we had always had with that ​ ​ ​ country. Democratic Republicans believed that the United States should be helping France ​ because they had been there to help us during our Revolution. Like George Washington, Adams supported neither side in the war. ​ ​ ​ ​ In 1798, Congress passed laws known as the Alien and Sedition Acts. Alien means “a ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ foreigner.” The Alien Act allowed the President to expel any alien thought to be dangerous to ​ the country. New arrivals to the country often supported the Democratic Republicans. Sedition means stirring up rebellion against the government. The Sedition Act said ​ ​ ​ that a person could be fined or jailed for criticizing the government. Jefferson and the Democratic Republicans hated these laws because they violated the Freedom of Speech found in the First Amendment. However, the laws were not challenged in ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ the Supreme Court. Why would the Democratic Republicans not want the Supreme Court to decide on these laws? The judges were mainly Federalists. ​ In the states of Kentucky and Virginia, the state legislatures voted to say they did not like these federal laws. These statements became known as the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions. ​ These statements were supposed to have been written by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. They suggested that each state “had the right to judge for itself” whether a law is constitutional. They said that if a state decided that a law was unconstitutional, it could nullify the law, which ​ ​ ​ means to cancel it within its borders. But do states have a right to decide anything about federal laws? That question was an important question about the Constitutional Principle of federalism ​ that was not answered then and would come back again. Video: The Presidents- John Adams. ​ ​ Why did John Adams face a hard time as president? He was following George Washington who was so popular. To make things ​ ​ worse, Adams was insecure and a bit obnoxious. He annoyed a lot of people. The XYZ Affair- Who were “X”, “Y”, and “Z”? Three French officials who demanded bribes from the US diplomats. When many Federalists demanded war with France because of “X, Y, and Z,” what does Adams decide to do to the French? He sent more ambassadors to negotiate a Peace Treaty. He avoided war and stayed neutral (like Washington had). When people started to criticize his position, Adams got Congress to pass the Alien and Sedition Acts. What did the laws do? The laws made it illegal to criticize the President and other government officials. (Note: These laws DO go against the idea of Freedom of speech and they made Adams very unpopular.) “Two presidents signed the Declaration of Independence: John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. Both died on July 4, 1826- the 50th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.” .
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