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Theme: Globalization // October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826 // // Political Party: Federalist Party // // One Term in Office: March 4, 1797 – March 4, 1801 // // Vice President: Thomas Jefferson // John Adams was a very determined man who wouldn’t let anyone get in his way of accomplishing his goals, and this is a great quality to have to be a president of the United States. As a president Adams deserves a B+, because he accomplish some great things in his four years as president, but some of the bills, and laws he passed were unconstitutional. One of the great things Adams did was helping America’s globalization prosper. Adams helped to peacefully resolve the growing tensions with France. Most of the Americans wanted to declare war on France, but Adams knew this would ruin relations between France and the United States, and decided to resolve their problems peacefully. This helped future U.S. presidents to reach out to other countries and have peaceful relationships with them as well.
 * __ John Adams __**

As president John Adams’ biggest goal was to acquire good relations with France. Though it was a long, and stressful process Adams finally accomplished his goal of establishing a good relationship with France through peaceful means. In 1797 after Adams was elected president he sent three men to France to work with the French Foreign Minister, and make a truce. When Adams’ three-man mission arrived in France, the French Foreign Minister refused to meet with them until they paid a $250,000 bribe. When Adams heard this news he was very mad, and wanted to go to war with France immediately! Thomas Jefferson, Adams’ vice president, and his fellow republicans thought Adams was just trying to use France’s rejection of a peace treaty as an excuse to declare war on France. But the republicans finally understood the reasoning for Adams rage when he released the document from France, asking for the bribe, to the public. But before releasing the documents to the public he changed the three French agents’ names to X, Y, and Z, making this event known as the XYZ Affair. Once all the American’s read this document they all wanted to declare war on the French as well, but Adam’s knew his young country was not prepared for another war, and wanted to solve the problem peacefully. For two years there were a series of battles at sea between the French and the Americans called the Quasi-War, but still Adams refused to declare war with the French. Adams, though he was strongly discouraged by his council, sent another peace mission to France, being promised they would be treated respectfully. This time the peace mission worked! France gave neutrality sea rights to the United States, and dismissed their former alliance formed under the American Revolution. In return the United States granted France the title most favored nation trading partner. In the end of John Adams’ one term presidency he accomplished his very ambitious goal of forming a good relationship with France.

John Adams was a warm and kind man to his family, but to others he seemed cold and coincided. Adams once even said, “There are few people in this world with whom I can converse, I can treat all with decency and civility, and converse with them, when it is necessary, on points of business. But I am never happy in their company.”( DeGregorio 19). As one could see Adams was not much of a people person, and this led to him and congress not having a very good relationship. Adams was a very closed and reserved man who didn’t share his ideas with congress, and didn’t acknowledge congresses ideas either. He didn’t appreciate the congressmen’s ideas because he didn’t like to take advice from others. During the XYZ Affair when Adams sent three men over in attempt to form an alliance with France for the second time he was strongly advised not to by the council. But since Adams didn’t have a good relationship with the congressmen he ignored their suggestions of concern and protection, and luckily for Adams it all turned out well. Adams was a good leader and usually made the right decision on his own, but he should have had a better relationship with the congress so he wouldn’t have made so many errors, for example the Alien and Sedition Acts was a huge mistake.

The most positive outcome of John Adams presidency was the XZY Affair because it had the most life changing effect on the United States. The XYZ Affair helped America immensely because it allied the French and the United States together. When the French and United States made their peace agreement it gave America the comfort of knowing they have another country behind them, and someone to trade with. Trading with the French helped America’s economy grow, they gained money be importing, and exporting with France. America would receive products they needed, but couldn’t produce themselves, from importing, and gained a lot of money by exporting products to France. France would pay high prices for American goods that they were not able to produce on their own. This helped gain America more money and useful products that could help their daily living. The United States could really use a good trading partner and the money, considering they had lost a lot of money in the revolutionary war. This money from trading with France helped the United States economy increase to a sustainable living economy. Even though Adams created peaceful relations with France during his presidency he also did something unbelievable, and at the same time unconstitutional. In 1798 Adams created the Alien and Sedition Acts. The Alien and Sedition Acts was a serious of four laws designed to destroy the opposition in America. The first act formed was the Naturalization Act, which made it more difficult for immigrants to become citizens in America. The Naturalization Act was later repealed in 1802. The second act of the Alien and Sedition Acts was the Alien Act, which gave the president permission to deport any immigrant who seemed dangerous. The Alien Enemies Act, which was the third act, was directed at the French immigrants. Under this act the president was authorized to imprison any enemy aliens during wartime. The fourth and final act of the Alien and Sedition Acts was the Sedition Act. This act threatened to fine or imprison anyone who wrote, printed, or published a negative item against the government of the United States. This was the worst of the four acts, because it went against the First Amendment of the constitution, freedom of religion and freedom of the press. The three last acts (the Alien Act, the Alien Enemies Act, and the Sedition Act) were made with a two-year expiration date and were expired in 1800. Luckily all these unjust acts were ended and didn’t continue, because they were unfair to the citizens’ natural rights and they were unconstitutional. The Alien and Sedition Acts were the worst event that happened in John Adams presidency. It made a lot of American citizens think about, and view Adams differently. This event made many citizens wonder if Adams was fit to be a president, and could have been the reason most citizens did not vote for Adams to be president for a second term. Although Adams created these unconstitutional acts they were luckily diminished in a short amount of time, and we can’t forget the great relationship that Adams formed between the French and America, that was a huge step to becoming a globally involved country.

Due to John Adams presidency many future generations to come were influenced. During Adams’ presidency the XYZ Affair took place, this event caused the United States and the French to have a peaceful settlement that led to good relations. Since Adams created friendly relations with the French in 1800 the following generations had friendly relations with France as well, leading up to today. Even today we have great and friendly relations with France, all because John Adams achieved his goal of peacefully obtaining a stable relationship with France. Also in 1798 when the Quasi War was going on between the French and the United States Adams decided it was time to build up his Naval department. In 1775 congress first started to establish the U.S. Navy, but it really started to become stronger during the Quasi War. Adams knew he would need a strong and defensive Naval department and he helped it grow significantly during this time, because this is when the American Navy was taking a lot of hits at sea, and they needed to be stronger to survive. Adams was the first president to put significant efforts into making the Naval department stronger. His efforts paid off because now we have the strongest Navy in the world, and it’s all thanks to Adams starting the basis of our Navy and building it from the bottom up. Also the Navy now helps America trade and interact globally with countries all over the world. This is how John Adams helped our country become what it is today.

Our country was definitely better off after John Adams presidency. He helped to improve our relations with France, and strengthen our Naval department immensely. Even though Adams made some errors, for example the Alien and Sedation Acts, they were repealed and/or demolished during or just after his term as president. This is why Adams deserves a B+ for his presidency, even though he had quite a few laws put into place that were unconstitutional, he still did help immensely in establishing the foundation of our country! ** Works Cited: ** DeGregorio, William. //The Complete Book of U.S. Presidents seventh edition//. New Jersey: Barricade Books Inc., 2009. Print.

"John Adams." //Naval History and Heritage Command//. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 Sept. 2011. .

"John Adams - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia." //Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia//. N.p., 3 Sept. 2011. Web. 4 Sept. 2011. .