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__John Adams__

Born: October 30th, 1735 Died: July 4th, 1826 Term: 1797-1801 Vice President: Thomas Jefferson (1797-1801) Political Party: Federalist

If John Adams were to be graded on his presidency, he would be given a B. Adams would recieve a B be cause of his strong foreign policy, achievements such as his prevention of a war with France, and the acts he passed while in power.

Adams had a few goals during his time in office and for his administration. He liked Washington's administration and wished to keep a similar structure or way of running the office. First and foremost, he wanted to prevent a war with France. Adams knew that America, who was recovering from the Revolution and road to independence, was in no shape to take on a nation with military/naval might of France. He prevented war with France mostly by being persistent. He sent two peace missions to France, the first being rejected, in order to show that he had no wish or intention of fighting them. The second peace offerring was accepted and a war with the great nation of France was averted. Lastly, he wanted to ensure that his politcal party's views and opinions were still prevalent even after he left office. Adams made sure this happened by placing many Federalist politicians and/or judges in positions around the government. Overall, Adams' main goals were accomplished during his time in office.

Adams' relationship with congress was unstrained and peaceful. Both houses of congress were mainly made up of Federalists, which helped ease the relationship between a Federalist Congress and a Federalist President. Because of the president and congress shared the same politcal parties, little to no vetoes occured. This also led to Congress approving many of Adams' requests such as helping build a stronger Navy in case of conflicts with France, funding the bolstered Navy, improving defenses along the American coast, and creating a provisional army. Congress also helped Adams pass acts such as the Alien and Sedition acts to help prevent Adams' opposition to becoming too prevalent. Adams showed his support for Congress by making more stamp and house taxes after the XYZ affair when communicating with France.

The achievement from Adams' administration that showed the most positive outcome would have to be his prevention of war with France when it certainly looked like there was going to be, many people wanted to, a war with France. President Adams cool-headedness prevailed when the popular clamor from the people was to go to war. French ships were attacking American mercantile ships while at sea. Hearing this, Adams sent three men to France to negotiate, but the French Prime Minister would not see the three Americans. Instead, the French Minister asked for a 250,000 dollar bribe to even think about negotiating with America. Insulted, Adams was ready to declare war but was still unsure. This led to Adams sending out documents of the account between the French and American in where he replaced the names of the three French men with X, Y, and Z (XYZ affair). Adams fearing America was on the brink of a war it was unprepared for, he sent another peace mission to France. This time the peace offerings were accepted and the war with France was prevented. Not all in the Adams administration was good though. The most prominent 'mishaps' of Adams were his Alien and Sedition Acts. These acts clearly set up to decrease Adams' opposition. These acts made it harder for Jefferson supporters (Jeffersonians) to become citizens and also stated that Adams could immediately deport any alien he 'deemed dangerous'. Three out of four of these acts got repealed once Jefferson became president.

The Alien and Sedition Acts were prominent in setting up the future of America, though. These acts set up many immigration laws in the coming America. For example, these acts allowed immigrants to be imprisoned or expelled durings times of war when deemed neccessary. The Alien and Sedition Acts included the Naturalization Act which allowed aliens to live in the US for 14 years instead of 5 while applying for citizenship. Also, the Sedition Act stated that anyone who slandered or negatively criticized the president could be imprisoned. These acts were all very important important because in a way it gave more control to the government over the people. These acts are said to have led to the Espionage Act and Sedition act of 1918. For this reason, it is obvious that these laws and Acts greatly influenced later America.

Overall, at the end of Adams' term of office, America was better off as a country. Adams prevented a war with France that could hace been very detrimental to a very shakey America. At the end of Adams' term, America also was no longer in alliance with France, this allowed America to stay out of conflicts between the two European superpowers. While Adams did much good, things such as Alien and Sedition Acts bring his overall presidential rating down to a B.

Bibliography

"American President". University of Virginia. September 1, 2010 <[] >.

"The Complete Book of Presidents" William A. DeGrreorio