PRESIDENT JOHN ADAMS
Big Picture Question
How did the crisis with France affect foreign and domestic policy while John Adams was president?
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PRESIDENT JOHN ADAMS
THE ELECTION OF 1796
The election of 1796 was the first presidential election with political parties. Washington’s vice president John Adams, was the Federalists’ candidate, while former secretary of state Thomas Jefferson was the choice of the Democratic-Republicans.
Adams won by just three electoral votes. Jefferson became vice president because, under the Constitution at that time, the person receiving the second highest number of electoral votes became the vice president[1]. It was a strange political situation having the President and Vice President from opposing political parties.
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
No sooner had John Adams taken office than he faced a crisis with France. The French objected to Jay’s Treaty because they felt that it put the United States on the side of Britain. As a neutral nation, the United States claimed the right to trade nonmilitary goods with both Britain and France. In 1797, the French navy began to seize American ships trading with Britain. Americans called for war against France. Hoping to avoid war, President Adams sent diplomats to Paris to discuss the rights of neutral nations.
The French foreign minister, Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord would not meet with the Americans diplomats. Instead, he sent three agents make a deal with the Americans. Before Talleyrand would begin talks, he wanted a personal bribe of $250,000, the United States would have to “loan” France $12 million and President Adams would have to issue a personal apology for insulting remarks he made about the French government in a speech.
When Adams learned of the offer, he informed Congress. Adams did not reveal the names of the French agents, he only referred to them as X, Y and Z. The X, Y, Z Affair outraged Americans. “Millions for defense, but not one cent for tribute,” became the rallying cry. They were willing to spend money to defend their country, but they would not pay bribe to another nation.
The X, Y, Z Affair ignited war fever in the United States. Despite pressure from his Federalists party, Adams did not ask Congress to declare war on France. Like Washington, Adams wanted to stay out of European affairs. However, he could not ignore French attacks on American ships. Congress agreed to his proposal to rebuild the navy[2] and tripled the size of the army.
DOMESTIC PROBLEMS
Rumors were rampant in 1798 about a possible French invasion of America, one that would be supported by American traitors and a population of French immigrants that had grown to more than 20,000.
The nation’s rapidly growing immigrant population deeply troubled Federalists. It was argued that “none but the most vile and worthless” were coming into the country, that “all our present difficulties may be traced” to the “foreigners” in the land, and that America should “no longer” be “an asylum to all nations.” Federalists also worried about the 60,000 Irish immigrants in the new nation, some of whom had been kicked out of their country for plotting against British rule. These trouble makes, the Federalists argued, along with French immigrants presented a grace challenge to the nation.
A letter found outside the president’s residence fueled Federalists’ fears. It contained information about a plot by a group of Frenchmen “to set fire to the City…and to Massacre the inhabitants.” Hundreds of militiamen patrolled the city streets of Philadelphia as a precaution, and a special guard was assigned to the president’s home. In such a crisis atmosphere, Federalists took action. Laws were passed to control the threats they believed foreigners posed to the security of the nation.
In 1798, during the crisis with France, Federalists pushed several laws through Congress. These laws were known as the Alien and Seditions Acts. They represented the Federalist effort to address perceived threats from the nation’s immigrant groups.
The Alien Acts gave the government the power, in time of war, to deport or imprison any foreigner thought to be “dangerous” to the country. It also increased immigrants the time in which an immigrant could become a U.S. citizen from five to fourteen years. The Federalist passed this because many immigrants supported the Democratic-Republicans. The act would keep these immigrants from voting for years.
Sedition means stirring up rebellion against the government. The Sedition Act made it illegal for newspapers to criticize either Congress or the President of the United States Under this law, twenty-five newspaper editors were jailed or fined for expressing their opinion, all Democratic-Republicans.
Vice President Thomas Jefferson bitterly opposed the Alien and Sedition Acts. He could not ask for help from the Supreme Court because most of the justices were Federalists. With the help of James Madison, the two men urged the states to take a stance against the acts. They argued that states had the right to nullify, or cancel a law passed by the federal government.
Only Virginia and Kentucky took a stance by passing the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions. Both documents argued that the Sedition Act violated of the First Amendment[3] and claimed states could nullify or ignore a law if they felt it the violated the Constitution. This idea became the basis for argument that the individual states had the right to decide if federal laws were unconstitutional. This became known as states’ rights theory.
New England states saw the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions as dangerous. They were horrified at the idea of states asserting power against the federal government. It is possible to argue that Mr. Jefferson planted the seed of secession with the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions.
A PEACEFUL RESOLUTION
The conflict with France divided the Federalists party. Hamilton believed that war with France provided an opportunity to weaken the Democratic-Republicans, who supported France, and the opportunity to create an alliance with Britain.
President Adams resented Hamilton’s meddling in the affairs of his administration. Although Adams supported a military buildup, he never abandoned hope of a negotiating peace. Over Hamilton’s opposition, Adams sent diplomats to France. There they found changes in the French government that would make a peaceful solution more likely.
Napoleon Bonaparte, an ambitious general of the French army, seized control of France’s government in 1799. Napoleon was planning to take over several European nations and had not time for a war with the United States. Thus he signed an agreement that France would stop seizing American ships.
Like Washington, President Adams kept the United States out of war. His actions showed his leadership qualities but his success cost him the support of many Federalists and weakened the party for the election of 1800.
Americans were stunned by the news they received just before Christmas in 1799. George Washington had died at Mount Vernon after an illness that lasted barely thirty-six hours. The Father of the Country was gone! Members of Congress gathered in Philadelphia’s Lutheran Church at a memorial service to hear Virginian Henry “Lighthorse Harry” Lee eulogize Washington as “first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen.”
Washington’s death symbolized the passing of Federalist power. The Democratic-Republicans were in an excellent position to capitalize on a long string of political moves which had alienated large number of voters – the Whiskey Rebellion, Hamilton’s tax policies, Jay’s Treaty, the Alien and Sedition Acts, as well as conflict within the Federalist Party.
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[1] This would change with the 12th Amendment (1804)
[2] The modern navy dates to Adams’s administration
[3] There had been little discussion about the meaning of the first amendment