Election Of 1800 Apush Dbq

The Presidential Election of 1800 was an election between the current president John Adams and the current vice president Thomas Jefferson. Adams was a Federalist who thought that the central government and he should have more power over America. Jefferson as his vice president and a Democratic-Republican thought that Adams ways contradicted the Democratic principles and more supported the ways of Britain’s Monarchist government; which is seen in the way he was leading the country. In 1798 Adams started an undeclared naval war between U.S. and France in an attempt to get the French to stop seizing American merchant ships with Britain. Knowing that the French was dominating the war in Europe, Adams knew that we could not compete unless we strengthened

In an attempt to prevent an uprising, John Adams signed the Alien and Sedition Acts and Congress passed it. There were 4 acts that were included: The Neutralization Act, Alien Friendly Act, Alien Enemies Act, and The Sedition Act. These were made to get rid of any threat to the Federalist. The Naturalization Act required immigrants to be residence of U.S. for 14 years to become a citizen instead of 5 Years. The Alien Friendly/Enemies Act allowed the president to deport any aliens that were considered to be “dangerous to the peace and safety of the U.S.”, which the public thought gave too much power to the president and was an attempt to stop French influence in the US. Lastly, The Sedition Act was an act that would give anyone who wrote any false allegations about the government (to try to defame U.S. officials) fines and prison terms for the acts of “terrorism”. These Acts had a huge role in the Election of 1800 because there was major controversy within the Federalist Party and they were used as a way of slandering Adams so Jefferson could gain more

Which in turn forced the election into the hands of the House of Representatives, even though the House was still controlled by Federalists. Seeing the flaws in the Constitution, Congress proposed the 12th amendment in which each elector would have to cast separate votes for President and Vice-President. In the end, Jefferson, a Democratic-Republican, won and was elected president. This is why the election of 1800 is considered a revolution; it was the first time in history where one group of people gave up power to another group of people without any physical violence or war. It wasn’t only significant to America, but it was also a turning point for the whole world and the way people saw America as a country that would work together to build itself and was willing to change for the better of the