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 John Adams Born in the Massachusetts Bay colony in 1735, on October 30th Died on July 4th, 1826 Term in Office: March 4, 1797 – March 4, 1801 Vice President: Thomas Jefferson Political Party: Federalist

John Adams had many opportunities to start a feud with the French. Adams ability to stay calm and work toward peace, even when all of Americans interactions with the French told him not to, is why I believe he deserves a B+. By Adams forcing his “no war” attitude on the Americans, it opened up positive situations for the United States in the future. Adams main goal as President seemed to be concentrated toward peace and no war. During the very beginning of his time in office he had problems to deal with right away. The French were retaliating and seizing defenseless American merchant ships. 300 ships had been taken over by the French by 1797. Adams, focusing on peace and not war, tried to work an agreement out with the French. Even after multiple demands from the French that were ridiculous amounts of money, Adams still did not want a full on war with the French. Fighting continued with the French and the U.S. but it was contained to the waters only. Americans captured many French ships at sea. Even while all these feuds took place at sea, Adams still worked on the path of peace, pursuing a treaty agreement with them. I believe the relationship between congress and John Adams was a fairly good one, at least with his party, the federalists. On the other side of things, the democratic-republicans were led by none other than Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson didn’t agree with many of the decisions Adams made during his presidency. Jefferson and all the people he had behind him were shaking their heads at what the French had done to the Americans. Alexander Hamilton was also a Federalist, like Adams but even with that in common they both didn’t get along. Hamilton plotted with others from the Cabinet against Adams while he was in office. Adams choice to create sign the Convention of 1800 with the French was his best decision during his presidency. This was a great help for the United States. The French agreed to pay back the damages they had created while fighting the American sailors at sea. This push for peace by Adams also avoided a break out of war, which would of cost the Americans tons of money that they did not have. A negative decision of Adams would have to be when the Federalist group made the Alien and sedition laws. The Alien laws raised requirements for citizenship to 14 years. Adams could deport any “aliens” in America. The sedition laws also were a very negative decision during Adams presidency which hurt two of America’s freedoms, the Freedom for speech and the press. People could not talk badly about the president or the government. A great impact made by Mr. Adams was when he signed with the French the Convention of 1800. This peace agreement led to the purchase of Louisiana. Napoleon, 3 years after Adams presidency was over, sold this land to Thomas Jefferson. If John Adams had not made peace with the French in 1800, that land would have never been sold and made part of the United States. In conclusion, I believe John Adams made the United States a better place. His focus on peace and not war toward the end of his presidency really led the way for America to have new oppurtunities happen. Not engaging in war, which could have been an easy thing for Adams to do at the time, chose a different way of dealing with it. A B+ was well deserved by John Adams who, I think, helped the United states in a very positive way. Bibliograpghy: [] [] The American Pageant 12th Edition