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John Adams Presidency: The XYZ Affair, Alien and Sedition Acts | History with Ms. H | History with Ms. H | YouTubeToText
YouTube Transcript: John Adams Presidency: The XYZ Affair, Alien and Sedition Acts | History with Ms. H
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Summary
Core Theme
John Adams' presidency was marked by significant foreign policy challenges, particularly the XYZ Affair, which led to domestic political turmoil and the controversial Alien and Sedition Acts, sparking a debate over states' rights and federal power.
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hi and welcome to class today today
we're going to be going over the major
foreign and domestic policy concerns
from John Adams
presidency at the end of the video there
going to be three things you'll need to
started
while you're watching the video today if
you have any questions do not hesitate
to leave them in the comments below I'll
get back to you as soon as possible and
don't forget to hit subscribe so you can
be notified about more history videos
coming your
way by the end of the video there are
three questions you'll need to be able
to answer first what was the XYZ Affair
second what were the alien ins Sedition
Acts and third what were the Virginia
and Kentucky Resolution s John Adams was
the second President of the United
States he was elected after Washington
stepped down from office in
1796 and was our first single term
president during the election of
1796 we begin to see clear divisions in
the young United States and the
emergence of political
parties John Adams represented the
Federalist Party while Thomas Jefferson
represented the Democrat Republican
party Adams won many of the northern
states while Jefferson won most of the
south in the end John Adams won 51% of
the electoral vote becoming the first
and only Federalist president at the
time elections were held differently
than they are today John Adams got a
majority of the electoral votes so he
became president we still do that
today but John Adams didn't run with a
running m like presidents do today
instead the vice president was selected
by the person who got the second most
electoral votes so Adam's vice president
became Thomas Jefferson a democratic
Republican can you imagine if the
president and the vice president were
from two different political parties
today things would not go well and it
didn't then either we'll come back to
this later in the video we're going to
start by focusing on the major foreign
policy ISS isue during Adam's presidency
remember foreign policy are the things
that impact the United States and other
countries the major foreign policy event
that happened during Adam's presidency
was the XYZ Affair think back to
Washington's presidency Britain was
impressing or kidnapping American
Sailors to solve this issue Britain and
the United States signed Jay's Treaty
this made the French angry because they
they viewed the treaty as the United
States siding with Britain while Britain
and France were at War the US claimed to
be neutral but they were signing
treaties with Britain that helped trade
between the two countries so France
retaliated by impressing American
Sailors John Adams sent three diplomats
to France to try and negotiate peace and
avoid war he was trying to follow
Washington's advice to stay neutral and
stay out of Affairs in Europe during the
meeting the French diplomat demanded a
bribe from the Americans to stop the
impressment of sailors not the best plan
they could have come up with American
newspapers began publishing what the
french had done referring to the French
diplomats as X Y and Z hence calling it
the XYZ Affair Americans were outraged
insulted by the demands people cried
Millions for defense not one cent for
tribute meaning they would rather spend
Millions fighting a war than pay the
French br tribe Washington himself was
even ready to come out of retirement to
fight the French months later the
diplomats met again and were able to
reach a peace
agreement even though they didn't go to
war the XYZ Affair still had a major
impact on politics at home Federalists
began to see immigrants especially those
from France as possible threats and
spies leading a French invasion
as a response to this fear the
Federalists in Congress passed the Alien
and Sedition Acts these were a series of
laws that were designed in part to
strengthen the power of the Federalists
and weaken the Democratic Republicans
who were led by Jefferson the alien acts
did three things first they extended the
time immigrants had to live in the
United States before they could apply
for citizenship from 5 years to 14 years
second they gave congress the power to
arrest or Deport any male citizen from a
foreign country with which the United
States was at War this means that if the
US had gone to war with France Congress
could arrest or Deport any male French
immigrant even if they had not broken
the law and finally they gave the
president the power to deport any
noncitizen suspected of plotting against
the US for the next 2 years but because
the United States didn't end up going to
war with anyone and due to the time
constraints on the alienx no immigrants
were actually
deported however because most immigrants
supported the Democratic Republican
Party Party growth slowed as a result of
the alien acts while the alien Acts were
controversial the Sedition Act became
the most infamous part of these laws the
Sedition Act made it illegal to publish
anything that criticized the president
Congress or the laws it
created interestingly enough the vice
president was not protected from
criticism remember the vice president
was Thomas Jefferson who was a
democratic Republican and not a
federalist this seems a bit fishy in
response to the alien in Sedition Acts
Jefferson and James Madison another
prominent Democratic Republican wrote
the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions
these argued that the government's power
was limited to only what the
Constitution said it could do since the
Constitution did not give the federal
government power to limit immigration or
the Press their actions were
unconstitutional the Sedition Acts were
a direct violation of the first
amendment protection of freedom of the
press and since the Alien and Sedition
Acts were unconstitutional the states
had the right to nullify or legally
overturn the Alien and Sedition Acts the
Virginia cont resolutions would become
very important because they were the
first instance of the doctrine of
nullification this idea that the states
can nullify federal laws will come back
again and again as the US inches closer
and closer to the Civil War more on that
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