Transcript chapter 7 sect. 4 ppt.

Chapter 7,
Section 4
John Adams’s Presidency
The Election of 1796
 New




Era in United States Politics
More than one candidate ran for president
John Adams (Federalist)
vs.
Thomas Jefferson (Republican)
What did each side stand for ?(Don’t write
this part. You already did, didn’t you? It’s
okay)
A New President
 John
Adams would have to
work hard to win the people’s
trust

George Washington was adored
by the people
 Even
those who opposed him
respected him

Hard-working, honest, and
intelligent
The United States and France
 John
Adams wanted to improve foreign
relations with France


Sent United States diplomats overseas
Upon arrival, diplomats were ignored by
Foreign Minister Talleyrand and instead
visited by 3 French secret agents
 Agents
said that a treaty would only be
discussed in exchange for a $250,000 bribe
and a loan of $12 million
 The United States diplomats refused the
demands
The United States and France
 In
March of 1798, President John Adams
told Congress that the peace-seeking
mission had failed


Informed Congress of the French terms,
substituting the letters X,Y, and Z for the
names of the French Secret Agents
Federalists in Congress called for war with
France
 XYZ

Affair
Americans were outraged at such
disrespect
Preparations for War
 President
John Adams asked Congress to
expand the navy to a fleet of more than
30 ships and called for the United States
to keep a peacetime army

Congress approved both measures
 President
Adams did not want to go to
war with France



Worried about cost
Did not ask Congress for a declaration of war
Tried to reopen peace talks with France
Peace Efforts
 President
John Adams’s decision not
to declare war stunned Federalists
 American and French ships engaged
in fighting in the Caribbean
 John Adams sent a representative to
France and eventually, a treaty was
signed
 President
Adams then forced two
members of his cabinet to resign for trying
to block his peace efforts
The Alien and Sedition Acts
 Democratic-Republicans
sympathize with France
 Alien and Sedition Acts



continued to
Passed by Federalist controlled Congress
4 laws said to protect the United States but
really intended to crush opposition to war
Sedition Act
Controversial law which forbade anyone from
publishing or voice criticism of the federal
government
 Violated freedom of speech and freedom of
press

The Alien and Sedition Acts
 Thomas


Jefferson and James Madison
Viewed acts as misuse of government
power
Wrote resolutions passed by the Kentucky
state legislature in 1798 and Virginia in 1799
(Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions)
 Argued
that the Alien and Sedition Acts were
unconstitutional
 Congress did not repeal the acts, but allowed
them to expire within a few years
 The Resolutions supported the idea that states
could challenge the federal government
John Adams and Thomas
Jefferson
 Longtime
political rivals
 Abigail Adams death helped the two men to
reconcile
 Close and personal correspondence for the
remainder of their lives
 Both died on July 4, 1826


Both architects of the document (the Declaration of
Independence) that gave birth to this new Nation
dead, 50 years to the day from the birth of the country
they founded.
John Adams’s last words were “Thomas Jefferson
survives”

Thomas Jefferson had died only a few hours earlier