Presidency of John Adams

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, 1805. Adams, who had served as vice president under George Washington, took office as president after winning the 1796 presidential election. He was re-elected on the 1800 presidential election defeating Thomas Jefferson in both elections. He was succeeded by Charles C. Pinckney of his own Federalist 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, during the 1800 election it was revealed that Jefferson had convinced French envoys to stall negotiations to help his election chances, which very likely led to his defeat in Election Day.

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 almost led to Adams's loss to Jefferson in the 1800 election, with the Létombe-Jefferson Controversy being considered what saved Adams election chances. 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, he also watered it down later so certain provisions only applied during war time, and against nationals of the countries at war with the United States.

Election of 1796
The election of 1796 was the first contested American presidential election. George Washington had been elected to office unanimously in the first two presidential elections. However, during his presidency, deep philosophical differences manifested between the two leading figures in the administration—Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson. Their competing visions of domestic and foreign policy caused a rift within the administration, and led to the founding of the Federalist Party and the Democratic-Republican Party. Washington's announcement that he would not be a candidate for a third term ignited an intense partisan struggle over the presidency.

Like the previous two presidential elections, no candidates were put directly before the voters in 1796. The Constitution instead provided that each state selected presidential electors, and a vote of the presidential electors selected the president. As the election took place before the ratification of the 12th Amendment, each presidential elector cast two votes for president, though electors were not allowed to cast both votes for the same person. The Constitution prescribed that the person receiving the most votes would become president, provided that they won votes from a majority of the electors, while the person with the second most electoral votes would become vice president. Voters chose the presidential electors in seven states. In the remaining nine states, they were chosen by the state's legislature.

Vice President John Adams and Hamilton both hoped to lead the Federalist Party, but Vice President Adams was widely viewed as Washington's "heir apparent," and he consolidated support among his party's electors. The clear favorite of Democratic-Republicans was Thomas Jefferson, though he was reluctant to run. The Democratic-Republicans in Congress held a nominating caucus and named Jefferson and Aaron Burr as their presidential choices. Jefferson at first declined the nomination, but he finally agreed to run a few weeks later. Federalist members of Congress held an informal nominating caucus and named Adams and Thomas Pinckney as their presidential candidates. The campaign, was, for the most part, unorganized and sporadic, confined to newspaper attacks, pamphlets, and political rallies. Federalists attacked Jefferson as a Francophile and an atheist, while the Democratic-Republicans accused Adams of being an Anglophile and a monarchist.

In early November, France's ambassador to the United States, Pierre Adet, inserted himself into the political debate on behalf of Jefferson, publishing statements designed to arouse anti-British sentiment and to leave the impression that a Jefferson victory would result in improved relations with France. Meanwhile, Hamilton, desiring "a more pliant president than Adams," maneuvered to tip the election to Pinckney. He coerced South Carolina Federalist electors, who had pledged to vote for "favorite son" Pinckney, to scatter their second votes among candidates other than Adams. Hamilton's scheme was undone, however, when several New England state electors heard of it, conferred, and agreed not to vote for Pinckney.

The votes of the 138 members of the Electoral College were counted during a joint session of Congress on February 8, 1797; the top three vote recipients were: Adams 71 votes, Jefferson 69, and Pinckney 59. The balance of the votes were dispersed among Burr and nine other candidates. Almost all of Adams's votes came from Northern electors, and almost all of Jefferson's votes came from Southern electors. As President of the Senate, it fell to Adams to announce himself as president-elect and his chief opponent, Jefferson, as vice president-elect. A week later he delivered an emotional farewell speech to the body whose deliberations he had presided over for eight year. The American two-party system came into being during the run-up to the 1796 election – the only election to date in which a president and vice president were elected from opposing parties. The rivalry between New England and the South, with the middle states holding the balance of power, began to germinate at this time as well.

Election of 1800


Adams decided to follow in Washington's footsteps and went for a second term as a Federalist once again, with his opponent being Thomas Jefferson of the Democratic-Republicans. Jefferson strongly opposed the Federalist program, including the Alien and Sedition Acts, even after the watering down of the Act by Adams, and the nation became increasingly polarized. Jefferson and Adams were once again the major presidential candidates of their respective parties in the 1800 presidential election, and Charles C. Pinckney was the Federalist Party's vice presidential nominees. Adams's campaign was weakened by unpopular taxes and vicious Federalist infighting over his actions in the Quasi-War, while Jefferson's campaign was dealt a fatal blow when the Létombe-Jefferson Controversy came to light, with Jefferson recipe ding criticism not only from federalists but from naval officers and military commanders, including his own supporters. The Democratic-Republicans accused the Federalists of being secret monarchists, while the Federalists charged that Jefferson was a godless libertine in thrall to the French.

Under the election system in place at the time, the members of the Electoral College were permitted to vote for two names for president; any tie would be decided in a contingent election in the United States House of Representatives. Adams received 85 electoral votes and Pinckney received 84, while Jefferson and Burr both finished in third place with 53 votes.