Transcript Slide 1

The Adams Presidency & Political
Dissent
Why is this a
problem?
 What did the founding
father’s not envision?

XYZ Affair

France was upset over the Jay Treaty
 Jay
Treaty promoted closer trade ties between
Great Britain and the U.S.
 Democratic-Republicans
feared this would
undercut republican values
 France
goods
 Many
seize American ships carrying British
Americans cry for war
XYZ Affair
President Adams send negotiators to France
 Three French agents deny the negotiators the
ability to meet with the French foreign minister



Demanded $250,000
Demanded a $12 million loan from US
XYZ Affair

US Response
 “No,
no; not a sixpence”
 U.S. increases military spending
 “Millions
for defense, but not a cent for tribute”
 Congress
authorizes American ships to seize
French vessels
 Undeclared
naval war
Political Dissent
DemocraticRepublicans accuse
Adams of purposely
sabotaging
negotiations so he
could go to war
 Federalists accuse
DemocraticRepublicans of being
French supporting
traitors

Political Dissent

“Fighting Words”
 “…the
man who does not reprobate…the
French must have a soul black enough to be
fit for treason”
 If Jefferson had been president, “we should
all have been sold to the French.” ~Abigail
Adams
Alien & Sedition Acts

Alien Acts
 President
could deport resident alien
considered "dangerous to the peace and
safety of the United States."
 extended the duration of residence required
for aliens to become citizens, from five years
to 14
 authorized the president to apprehend and
deport resident aliens if their home countries
were at war with the United States
Alien & Sedition Acts

Sedition Acts
 Made
it illegal to write, print, utter any “false,
scandalous, and malicious” statements
against the president
 anyone "opposing or resisting any law of the
United States, or any act of the President of
the United States" could be imprisoned for up
to two years
Alien & Sedition Acts

Impact
 Led
to 15 indictments/10 convictions
 Mostly
Democratic-Republican newspaper editors
 One was an Irish born congressman

Adams has a shown “a continual grasp for power” and
“an unbounded thirst for…selfish avarice [ greed].”
Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions

James Madison, The Virginia Resolution
 Sedition
Act was unconstitutional
 States had the right to protest this act

Thomas Jefferson, The Kentucky
Resolution
 States
had the authority to judge the
constitutionality of federal laws
 Nullification states refusal to recognize a
federal law