Document # 1: The XYZ Affair and its Aftermath
Relations between the United States and France had gone steadily downhill from the time of the Genet mission. (Remember? From the Washington Lesson?) Tensions were further exacerbated by the Jay Treaty, signed between the United States and Great Britain. The French government, bitterly angered by the Jay Treaty, revoked the Franco-American commercial treaty of 1778 and issued the decree of 1796. They also began to seize American ships. In the eyes of the French government, the United States had not kept its agreement with France, and they refused to receive the American minister, Charles C. Pinckney. John Adams, wishing to avoid open war, sent a delegation to France. The delegation included John Marshall, Elbridge Gerry and Charles C. Pinckney. These events would lay down the groundwork for the XYZ Affair in 1797.
Three anonymous Frenchmen approached the delegation and demanded a gift of 250,000 dollars to Talleyrand, the French foreign minister, and a loan of ten million dollars to France before the French government would ever see them. Finally, they were told that they were in danger of arrest. The Americans were unwilling and unable to produce the money and broke off the negotiations. When the dispatches, calling the Frenchmen X, Y, and Z reached the United States, Adams sent an account to Congress. In his account, Adams declared that he would not send another minister unless properly and respectably received by the French government.
Adams did not want to release complete information on the meetings, fearing that it would result in a war cry against France. Finally, Adams, who was being attacked mercilessly by Republican critics, compiled and released the complete transcripts. Soon, war fervor was sweeping the nation. Adams did not wish to go war with France, but American ships were being attacked almost as soon as they left New York Harbor. Adams decided to build a navy and give it the task of protecting American ships and attacking French privateers. The Navy was officially established in 1798. Four large frigates, which had been originally authorized by Congress in 1794, were rushed to completion. They were the "Constellation," the "United States," the "Chesapeake" and the "President." In addition, cities throughout the eastern seaboard built ships for the government, at their own expense. By 1800, the US Navy was fielding a fleet of 49 warships of various sizes. Furthermore, over 100 merchant vessels were armed and authorized not only to defend themselves but to take aggressive actions when possible.
The US Navy was given the task of protecting US ships and attacking French privateers and naval vessels. In the two years of warfare between France and the US, American ships sank or captured nearly 90 French vessels on the high seas. By 1800, the French realized the error of their ways, and agreed to accept an American delegation without precondition. An agreement was swiftly reached, and the hostilities came to an end. For those not at sea, the fighting between France and the US may have seemed like a "quasi-war;" but for those serving in the US Navy or on merchant ships, it was a war in every way that mattered.
The Alien and Sedition Acts were passed next…
Document #2: The Alien and Sedition Acts
Under the threat of war with France, Congress in 1798 passed four laws in an effort to strengthen the Federal government. Known collectively as the Alien and Sedition Acts, the legislation sponsored by the Federalists was also intended to quell any political opposition from the Republicans, led by Thomas Jefferson.
An Act Respecting Alien Enemies – Alien Act (July 6, 1798)
That whenever there shall be a declared war between the United States and any foreign nation or government, or any invasion or predatory incursion shall be perpetrated, attempted, or threatened against the territory of the United States, by any foreign nation or government, and the President of the United States shall make public proclamation of the event, all natives, citizens, denizens, or subjects of the hostile nation or government, being males of the age of fourteen years and upwards, who shall be within the United States, and not actually naturalized, shall be liable to be apprehended, restrained, secured and removed, as alien enemies.
An Act for the Punishment of Certain Crimes Against the United States – Sedition Acts (July 14, 1798)
That if any persons shall unlawfully combine or conspire together, with intent to oppose any measure or measures of the government of the United States…he or they shall be deemed guilty of a high misdemeanor, and on conviction, before any court of the United States having jurisdiction thereof, shall be punished by a fine not exceeding five thousand dollars, and by imprisonment during a term not less than six months nor exceeding five years… That if any person shall write, print, utter or publish, or shall cause or procure to be written, printed, uttered or published, or shall knowingly and willingly assist or aid in writing, printing, uttering or publishing any false, scandalous and malicious writing or writings against the government of the United States…or to stir up sedition within the United States … or to resist, oppose, or defeat any such law or act, or to aid, encourage or abet any hostile designs of any foreign nation against United States, their people or government, then such person, being thereof convicted before any court of the United States having jurisdiction thereof, shall be punished by a fine not exceeding two thousand dollars, and by imprisonment not exceeding two years.
Document #3: The Adams Administration: The Domestic Landscape
Adams was the first president to live in what would later be called the White House. The city of Washington consisted of a brewery, a half-finished hotel, an abandoned canal, an empty warehouse and wharf, and 372 dwellings, "most of them small miserable huts." Cows and hogs ran freely in the capital's streets, and snakes frequented the city's many bogs and marshes. The entire population consisted of 500 families and some 300 members of government.
As the second president, Adams made a number of precedent-setting decisions. Where he chose to emulate George Washington, he was often led astray. Trying to stay apolitical, he allowed Alexander Hamilton to control the Federalist Party and occasionally even sided with Jefferson's Democratic-Republicans. He kept most of George Washington's cabinet and found himself surrounded by Hamilton loyalists. By the rules of the original Constitution, his election also gave him his rival Thomas Jefferson as a vice president. Jefferson and Adams, among the most respected men in America, alternated between being the closest of friends and the most hateful enemies over the course of the many years they worked together.
To pay for the military measures it enacted during the XYZ crisis, the Federalist Congress enacted heavy new stamp and house taxes. Farmers in eastern Pennsylvania rioted and attacked federal tax collectors in an incident later referred to as Fries' Rebellion. They believed that the new taxes were designed to support a large standing army and navy, which they opposed. Several of their leaders were arrested and sentenced to death for treason. However, on the eve of the election of 1800, Adams pardoned all of the prisoners.
Faced with rising animosity between parties and a split within the Federalists, Adams lost his re-election bid to his vice president. Just before time ran out on the Adams administration, they enacted the Judiciary Act of 1801. This sweeping law struck at a key point of contention: the jurisdiction of the federal courts. The Republicans wanted the federal courts to be constrained, but the new law gave these courts increased jurisdiction over land and bankruptcy cases. The federal courts now had greater authority at the expense of the states. The act added six new federal circuits with sixteen new judges. As a final measure, they also added dozens of new justices of the peace to the District of Columbia. Between December 12 and March 4, President Adams, with the approval of the Senate, busily stacked the courts with his own people. On the day before Adams turned the White House over to Jefferson, and the Jeffersonian Democrats, he appointed 42 Federalists to the federal courts. Federal judges served for life, so Adams was protecting his supporters and insuring that the Judicial Branch would remain in the hands of the Federalist Party and federalist ideals. It was claimed that President Adams stayed up late into the night of his last day in office to appoint the judges, hence the name "midnight judges."
Abigail Adams, John Adams’ wife, was one of America’s first and most ardent feminists. As such, she took a particularly active role in her husband’s presidency. In 1798, during Adams's term in the presidency, Abigail was concerned about the influence of the French revolution and troubled by rumors of a forthcoming French invasion of America. She urged her husband to declare war on France. Upset by criticism of her husband and herself in the Republican press for having appointed relatives to important posts, she wrote that "the Liberty of the press is become licentious beyond any former period." Abigail approved of the Alien and Sedition Acts passed in 1798, although the acts made John Adams uneasy. Adams's opponents thought that Abigail's partisanship was too overt and her influence on the president too great, referring to her as "Her Majesty."
Document #4: The Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions
After the passage of the Alien and Sedition Acts, Republicans accused the Federalists of violating fundamental liberties. The state legislatures of Kentucky and Virginia adopted resolutions written by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison denouncing the acts as an infringement on freedom of expression. The Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions advanced the idea that the states had a right to declare federal laws null and void, and helped to establish the theory of states' rights.
Virginia Resolution, James Madison, December 24, 1798
“That this Assembly does explicitly...declare that it views the powers of the federal government as resulting from the compact to which the states are parties...and that, in case of a deliberate...and dangerous exercise of other powers not granted by the said compact, the states who are parties thereto have the right, and are in duty bound, to interpose (intervene) for arresting the progress of the evil and for maintaining within their respective limits, the authorities, rights and liberties appertaining to them.
That the good people of this commonwealth, having ever felt, and continuing to feel, the most sincere affection for their brethren of the other states…appeal to the like dispositions of the other states, in confidence that they will concur with this commonwealth in declaring, as it does hereby declare, that the acts aforesaid, are unconstitutional; and that the necessary and proper measures will be taken by each, for co-operating with this state, in maintaining the Authorities, Rights, and Liberties, referred to the States respectively, or to the people.”
Kentucky Resolution, Thomas Jefferson, December 3, 1799
That this commonwealth considers the federal union, upon the terms and for the purposes specified in the late compact (the Constitution), as conducive to the liberty and happiness of the several states: That it does now unequivocally declare its attachment to the Union, and to that compact, agreeable to its obvious and real intention, and will be among the last to seek its dissolution: That if those who administer the general government be permitted to transgress the limits fixed by that compact, by a total disregard to the special delegations of power therein contained, annihilation of the state governments, and the erection upon their ruins, of a general consolidated government, will be the inevitable consequence…. That the several states who formed that instrument, being sovereign and independent, have the unquestionable right to judge of its infraction; and that a nullification, by those sovereignties, of all unauthorized acts done under colour of that instrument, is the rightful remedy: That this commonwealth does upon the most deliberate reconsideration declare, that the said alien and sedition laws, are in their opinion, palpable violations of the said constitution;