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__**Name:**__ John Adams Jr. (October 30, 1735-July 4, 1826)
 * __Political Party:__**Federalist
 * __Term(s):__**Served as President from 1797-1801
 * __Vice President:__** Thomas Jefferson

John Adams deserves a **B** for his presidency. He had a few flaws, like the Alien and Sedition acts, but made up for it with his many contributions to the country, like building up the navy. He also prevented the Quasi war, which was a great contribution to his presidency. Following the ideas of George Washington, Adams kept the country on the same path as Washington, while contributing to the growth of America as well. He deserves a B because he was a descent president, but not by any means spectacular.

One of Adams' goals as president was to stay out of the war between the French and the English. The French had once tried to hire American privateers to help them fight Britain, a practice George Washington frowned upon. Since the French and the US were allies, Adams was under extreme pressure to join the war because the French were popular in America Adams sent US diplomats to Paris to negotiate a treaty to protect US shipping, When the diplomats arrived in Freance, the learned that the French foreighn minister, Talleyrand, would not speak to them. Instead, they had a visit from 3 French agents. These mysterious agents said that Talleyrand would only discuss a treaty for $250,000. The French government also wanted a loan for $12 million. The US diplomats refused these outlandish demands. When Adams told congress that the peaceful mission to France had failed, he described the French terms, and substituted X, Y, and Z for the names of the 3 french agents. Upon hearing the news, federalists in congress wanted to go to war with France. This became known as the XYZ affair. Instead of staying out of just the war between the French and the English, Adams had to also stay out of a war between the US and France as well!! Despite all the pressure of going to war, Adams did not go to war, instead he just built up the Navy in case they did end up having to go to war (which they did, but it was unofficial). Since the America never entered the French-English war, or a war against the French, I'd say he was pretty successfu in achieving this goal.

Adams relationship with congress was great for the most part, however, during the time of the war between France, and England, things got a little shaky. Adams was very brave in defying his own party, and heading off a full scale war with France. Adams passed most laws that congress preposed, mainly the Alien and Sedition acts. The alien and sedition acts basically gave the president the right to boot any immigrant out of the country that he felt was a danger. It also made the time it took an alien to become a citizen longer, they became ctizens at the age of 14 after these acts. Most noteably, however was the Sedition act which made talk about the government illegal, and basically stripped away the freedom of press and speech. The Sedition act was extremely unpopular in the colonies, and it was revoked March 3, 1801. Adams was backed up by congress because it was mainly federalist. The 5th senate was 22-11 in favor of the federalist. The 5th house was 57-49 in favor of federalist. Also, he was backed up by the 6th senate and congress, with the federalists out numbering the democratic republicans.

The most positive action of his presidency was staying out of the war between the French and English. This was the most important because, the country was still new, and getting into another war would be very costlythat the US needed time to grow and mature into a powerful country, and war would not help that at all.

The most negative action of his presidency was by far the Sedition act. Adams promised all of these freedoms, and then WHAM, he takes away your freedom of speech and freedom of press? It was rediculous to have a law that prevented people to say/ print anything bad about the governent, and to punish anyone who did so. Luckily, it was revoked in 1801, and didn't last that long.

The only big contribution that Adams had on the future was pushing the declaration of independence. Without him pushing this, who knows, we may not have become the country we are today. Adams was one of our founding fathers, and we should be thankful for that. However, besides that, he was merely a clone of George Washington. He basically did all the same things as Washington, but I can't blame him, he was Washington's vice president. Adams would have had a more lasting effect on America if he had adopted more of his own ideas instead of living in the shadow of George Washington.

Adams was better off at the end of John Adams' term. He created the Navy, and prevented a full fledged war with the French. If we had gone to war with the French, our contry would have struggled ever more to come up with funds, and help feed our growing country. These contributions outweigh the negativity of the Alien and Sedition acts, and for that reason, he deserves a B at best.

"Alien and Sedition Acts." //Wikipedia//. Wikipedia, 10 Sept. 2009. Web. 10 Sept. 2009. [].

"Biography of U.S. President John Adams Part 5 Pros and Cons." //Trivia-Library//. Web. 10 Sept. 2009. .

"5th United States Congress." //Wikipedia//. Wikipedia, 10 Sept. 2009. Web. 10 Sept. 2009. [].

"John Adams." //The White House//. Web. 10 Sept. 2009. [].

"John Adams." //Wikipedia//. Wikipedia, 10 Sept. 2009. Web. 10 Sept. 2009. [].

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