Download File - Mr. Aiken: United States History

John Adams
Key events during his presidency.
Mia Tomer, Kaytlyn Williams & Celine
Vargas (7th period)
Foreign
XYZ Affair, Quasi War & Convention of
18000
XYZ Affair
It all began after the signing of Jay’s Treaty, which settled violations of the Treaty of Paris and
averted the threat of war with England, but stirred up angry reactions from both American and
European politicians. Mostly the French leaders, who viewed it as a step toward forming a union with
their enemy, a violation of the Franco-American Treaty of 1778. When John Adams became president in
1797, he inherited several problems from George Washington’s administration, one being a strained
relationship with France.
In retaliation for John Jay's agreement with England, French forces demolished more than 300 American
ships. To attempt to negotiate a settlement with France and stop the attacks on American shipping,
Adams appointed three commissioners: Charles Pinckney, United States minister to France; John
Marshall, a Virginia lawyer; and Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts. Due to the hostile environment, they
communicated through three French agents instead of speaking directly with Foreign Minister
Talleyrand; and they were labeled X, Y, and Z in the commissioners report to Congress. The agents
insisted that before negotiations could begin, the Americans were to pay a $250,000 bribe and a $12
million loan. Pinckney was the one to say no, and the whole incident later became known as “The XYZ
Affair.” However, it doesn't end there.
When the commissioners' report to Congress was made public, citizens were
furious about the French misbehavior; and even the most loyal DemocraticRepublicans joined a call for war due to the betrayal. Adams, on the other hand,
refused to declare war but advocated the build up of American armed forces.
Congress stopped commercial trade with France, renounced the alliance of 1778,
tripled the size of the army, and created a Navy Department with an order for the
construction of 40 warships. Adams even got George Washington, who was retired at
the time, to get involved with the build up by leading the military.
Adams remained steadfast in his refusal to sign a formal declaration of war,
because he believed that war with France would divide the colonies and lead to a
civil war. The XYZ Affair may have been Adams’s finest hour because of his decision
to put the interests of his nation ahead of those of his party.
Quasi War
There was a war going on between France and the United States. But not the kind
you may imagine. The situation was France and America butting heads, as usual,
but both sides refusing to admit there was any warlike proceedings going on.
However, the war they’d been denying was really happening… Subconsciously. And
that is exactly what the Quasi War was: The Undeclared War with France.
The two year undeclared war began before The XYZ Affair, in fact, The XYZ
Affair was an outcome of the animosity between The States and France. The Quasi
War pushed the United States into a serious debate about the nature and extent of
neutrality, the limits of presidential power, and the role of the military in America.
Convention of 1800
In 1800, Napoleon gained control of France and ushered in a more hospitable
diplomatic atmosphere between the two countries. The British and the Americans,
while not explicitly working together, had reduced the actions of the French Navy.
With the Convention of 1800, the United States and France officially ended
hostilities.
Signed in Paris that ended France's peacetime military alliance with
America. Napoleon was eager to sign this treaty so he could focus his attention on
conquering Europe and perhaps create a New World empire in Louisiana. This
ended the "quasi-war" between France and America.
Domestic
Alien Acts, Sedition Acts, Naturalization Act, VA
and KY resolutions, Birth of Political Parties &
Midnight Judges
Alien Acts
– Alien enemies act provided that once war had been declared, all male citizens
of an enemy nation could be arrested, detained, and deported.
– Alien friends act authorized the president to deport any non-citizen suspected
of plotting against the government during periods of either wartime or
peacetime.
– Were passed by the federalist congress in 1798 and signed into law by president
Adams.
– This law also made it harder for new immigrants to vote.
Sedition Acts
– Those who were found guilty of such actions, the act stated, shall be punished
by a fine of not more than $10,000 or imprisonment for not more than twenty
years, or both.
– Seemed to be aimed against those who spoke out against the federalist
– Strengthened the terms of the Espionage Act of 1917 of which targeted those
individuals who interfered with the draft and who publicly criticized the
government.
Naturalization Act
– Passed by the United States Congress on June 18, 1798 increased the period
necessary for immigrants to become a naturalized citizen in the United States
from 5 to 14 years.
– Intended to decrease the number of voters who disagreed with the Federalist
party.
VA and KY Resolutions
The Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions (or Resolves) were political
statements drafted in 1798 and 1799, in which the Kentucky and Virginia
legislatures took the position that the federal Alien and Sedition Acts were
unconstitutional. Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions, (1798), in U.S. history,
measures passed by the legislatures of Virginia and Kentucky as a protest against
the Federalist Alien and Sedition Acts. The resolutions were written by James
Madison and Thomas Jefferson (then vice president in the administration of John
Adams), but the role of those statesmen remained unknown to the public for
almost 25 years.
Birth of Political Parties
The framers of the Constitution had not prepared their plan of government
with political parties in mind. They hoped that the "better sort of citizens" would
debate key issues and reach a harmonious consensus regarding how best to legislate
for the nation's future. Thomas Jefferson reflected widespread sentiments when he
declared in 1789, "If I could not go to heaven but with a party, I would not go there at
all."
Yet despite a belief that parties were evil and posed a threat to enlightened
government, the nation's first political parties emerged in the mid-1790s. Several
factors contributed to the birth of parties.
The Federalists, under the leadership of George Washington, John Adams, and
Alexander Hamilton, feared that their opponents wanted to destroy the Union, subvert
morality and property rights, and ally the United States with revolutionary France.
The Republicans, under the leadership of Thomas Jefferson, feared that the
Federalists were trying to establish a corrupt monarchical society, like the one that
existed in Britain, with a standing army, high taxes, and government-subsidized
monopolies.
Midnight Judges
In the nineteen days between passage of this Act and the conclusion of his
administration, President Adams quickly filled as many of the newly created circuit
judgeships as possible. The new judges were known as the Midnight Judges because Adams
was said to be signing their appointments at midnight prior to President Thomas Jefferson's
inauguration. The famous Supreme Court case of Marbury v. Madison involved one of these
"midnight" appointments, although it was an appointment of a justice of the peace for the
District of Columbia, which was authorized under a different Act of Congress, not the
Judiciary Act.
Attempts to solve this situation before and throughout the presidency of John
Adams were overshadowed by more pressing foreign and domestic issues that occupied
Congress during the early years of the nation’s development.[1] None of those attempts to
fix the situation facing the Supreme Court was successful until John Adams took control in
1797. Faced with the Election of 1800, a watershed moment in American history that
represented not only the struggle to correctly organize the foundation of the United States
government but also the culmination of struggle between the waning Federalist Party and
the rising Democratic-Republican Party, John Adams successfully reorganized the nation’s
court system with the Judiciary Act of 1801.