Presidency of John Adams

Presidency of John Adams March 4, 1797 – March 4, 1801
Cabinet	See list
Party	Federalist
Election	1796
Seat	President's House White House
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This article is part of a series about John Adams
Early life Family Diplomacy Electoral history Legacy Memorials Bibliography 1st Vice President of the United States Vice Presidency 2nd President of the United States Inauguration Presidency Cabinet appointments Judicial appointments XYZ Affair Alien and Sedition Acts Fries's Rebellion Treaty of Tellico Treaty of Tripoli State of the Union Address 1797 1798 1799 1800 Publications Thoughts on Government Defense of Constitutions Vice Presidential and Presidential elections 1789 election 1792 election 1796 election 1800 election Post-presidency Correspondence with Jefferson Death
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The presidency of John Adams, began on March 4, 1797, when John Adams was inaugurated as the second president of the United States, and ended on March 4, 1801. Adams, who had served as vice president under George Washington, took office as president after winning the 1796 presidential election. The only member of the Federalist Party to ever serve as president, his presidency ended after a single term following his defeat in the 1800 presidential election. He was succeeded by Thomas Jefferson of the opposition Democratic-Republican Party.

When Adams entered office, the ongoing major European war between France and Great Britain was causing great difficulties for American merchants on the high seas and arousing intense partisanship among contending political parties nationwide. Attempts to negotiate with the French led to the XYZ Affair, in which French officials demanded bribes before they would assent to the beginning of negotiations. The XYZ Affair outraged the American public, and the United States and France engaged in an undeclared naval conflict known as the Quasi-War, which dominated the remainder of Adams's presidency. Adams presided over an expansion of the army and the navy, and the navy won several successes in the Quasi-War.

The increased expenditures associated with these actions required greater federal revenue, and Congress passed the Direct Tax of 1798. The war and its associated taxation provoked domestic unrest, resulting in incidents such as Fries's Rebellion. In response to the unrest, both foreign and domestic, the 5th Congress passed four bills, collectively known as the Alien and Sedition Acts. Signed into law by the president, these acts made it more difficult for immigrants to become U.S. citizens, allowed the president to imprison and deport non-citizens who were deemed dangerous or who were from a hostile nation, and criminalized making false statements that were critical of the federal government. The Federalist majority argued that the bills strengthened national security during a time of conflict, while the Democratic-Republicans harshly criticized the laws.

Opposition to the Quasi-War and the Alien and the Sedition Acts, as well as the intra-party rivalry between Adams and Alexander Hamilton, all contributed to Adams's loss to Jefferson in the 1800 election. Historians have difficulty assessing Adams's presidency. Samuel Eliot Morison has written that "he was by temperament unsuited for the presidency. He did know more than any other American, even James Madison, about political science; but as an administrator he was uneasy."^[1] Nonetheless, Adams was able to avoid war with France, arguing that war should be a last resort to diplomacy. In this argument, he won the nation the respect of its most powerful adversaries. Although Adams was fiercely criticized for signing the Alien and Sedition Acts, he never advocated their passage nor personally implemented them, and he pardoned the instigators of Fries's Rebellion. "Seen in this light," observed historian C. James Taylor, "Adams's legacy is one of reason, moral leadership, the rule of law, compassion, and a cautious but active foreign policy that aimed both at securing the national interest and achieving an honorable peace."^[2]