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=**The Presidency of John Adams**=

Name: John Adams Jr. October 30, 1735 - July 4, 1826 Political Party: Federalist Terms: 1 term, March 4, 1797 - March 3, 1801 Vice President: Thomas Jefferson

John Adams became President directly after George Washington and as a result of this had a very high example to follow. Throughout his term as President he proved that he was neither a superior nor terrible president. He came off as a mediocre President because he didn't do much that would show him to be a bad President and for these reasons he should be rated with a C.

John Adams has often been thought of simply as the president who came after Washington. Through experience as the vice president for George Washington, he developed many of the same ideas and goals that Washington had set through his Presidency. Adams' goal was not to be be popular, but just to provide the people with what was best for them. He wanted to follow Washington's example and stay out of the French and Indian war, and he succeeded just as Washington did. He also wanted to attempt to stay neutral in Congress, following the example that Washington had set and did rather well at completing that. Adams basically wanted to follow Washington in doing good for the country and not messing up the good state the country was currently in. Adams partially completed this goal, though certain events may not reflect that.

In Congress at the time of Adams' presidency, the Federalists were strongly divided from the Republicans, and the Federalists were not all very happy with one another. Adams was not as much of a favorite in Congress as Washington had been. The majority party in the houses of Congress was Federalists, but not by an overwhelming amount. Adams was obviously better liked by the Federalists than the Republicans, as he and the Federalists agreed more on their views of how to handle things. Not many laws were passed by Adams while in office, as he wasn't one of the favorite people in the opinion of Congress. Near the end of his presidency however, he passed the Alien and Sedition acts which many people know him for, just for passing these laws. These acts were later considered to be unconstitutional laws. This was a bad law for him and Congress to both agree to pass.

Of all the decisions that Adams made the one with the most positive outcome was the XYZ affair. This was when he decided to send three commissioners into France to negotiate, but the French would not speak with them until they agreed to pay them a bribe. Then Adams reported this act to congress and the negotiators were referred to as X, Y, and Z. This made the nation extremely excited and delighted with the decision that the Federalists had made with Adams. Even though there were a few small battles at sea, neither country wanted to enter a war. Finally word came that the French were not up for another war, so no such war took place. This was a great decision for the Americans, since they were such a newly established country, and would most likely not have done well in this war. The worst decision that President Adams made was passing the Alien and Sedition Acts. Many historians believe that this is what led to his loss in the election for his second term. This consisted of four acts that basically made it harder to live in the United States if you were an alien, plus prohibited inappropriate writings. These acts were meant to scare agents who were foreign out of the country and also to stop the Republicans from creating more harmful writings. These acts that were passed made an enormous amount of people unhappy with him as president, and also with Congress for passing them.

These alien and sedition acts not only influenced the presidents who would come in the near future, but also those who were not elected until much later on. Directly after Adams was Jefferson who as the vice president had a problem with these acts. Once he became President, he made sure that they all became expired or repealed during the beginning of his presidency. He also pardoned those who were convicted of the laws and reimbursed them for their fines. This showed all Presidents who were to come that laws that do not work for the people or that go against the Constitution are simply unacceptable. Being the president of the United States does not mean that you know everything, and you can still be wrong at times.

At the end of his presidency, John Adams had made a few changes to the country's current state. Adams made advances in foreign policy, but also went backwards with the passing of the Alien and Sedition laws. The country was in a worse state considering what those laws did to the progress of the country. Although, this was an easily fixable change that President Thomas Jefferson took care of right away. Overall, Adams did an okay job as President, causing little but not unbearable trouble. He didn't pass many laws or make a lot of changes to the way the country was running, and this proves that the second President of the United States, John Adams should be rated with a C for the job that he did while in office.

Bibliography: "Biography of John Adams." __Welcome to the White House__. 9 Sep. 2009 . Mccullough, David. __John Adams-2001__. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, 2001. "The Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 | Early America's Milestone Historic Documents." __Archiving Early America: Primary Source Material from 18th Century America__. 9 Sep. 2009 .