ipl-logo

John Adams A Success Or A Failure

1081 Words5 Pages

After the Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776, Americans needed a policy on how they were going to run their country. They first established the Articles of Confederation, which turned out to be a huge failure, they then decided to create The Constitution written by James Madison. Soon after, George Washington was unanimously voted into office. John Adams and Thomas Jefferson soon followed as the next two presidents. All three of these presidents experienced failures and successes under their presidency. However, John Adams handled tough situations better than the other two presidents making him have a more powerful impact on this country than the other two presidents. Throughout Washington’s presidency he made some decisions …show more content…

The French were mad at the United States for signing that treaty so Adams sent over Pinckney to negotiate with the French. Three agents told Pinckney that if he wanted to speak to the French Minister of Foreign Affairs he would have to pay a quarter of a million dollars just to speak to him. Then the minister wanted a twelve million dollar loan. John Adams then referred to the agents as “X”, “Y”, and “Z” when telling congress of this incident. By Adams referring to the agents as “X”, “Y”, and “Z” and not by their real names helped the nation not get into a war. John Adams also kept George Washington’s policy of neutrality which is very hard to do. If the public knew the agents name they would push harder for war against France. The XYZ Affair led America into an undeclared war called the Quasi War. Adams tried really hard to make this undeclared war only a naval conflict. People began to bash Adams and his policies by making false names and accusations about him. These really started to affect his political life. If he had people making fun of him then he would not receive the right amount respect to run a country and then no one would take him seriously. Adams could not afford to have people bashing him so he created the Alien and Sedition Act. This Act targeted Republican immigrants by making the amount years to become a United States citizen from five to fourteen years. It also gave John Adams the power to deport an immigrant that deemed a threat to the United States. Lastly, it became illegal to criticize public officials. Without the Alien and Sedition Act, states would have never had the power to nullify a law that they deemed unconstitutional. This was considered a success because some people thought that the power should be in the hands of the state and not the federal government to avoid a monarchy. In the Election of 1800, John Adams was running

Show More
Related
345 Words | 2 Pages

Similarly, the Adams administration also dealt with many foreign affairs, although these more often than not had a unifying effect in America. Similar to the Spanish reaction of Jay’s Treaty, the French were very skeptical of the unexpected agreement between the Americans and Great Britain, causing the French to take action. Seeing the treaty as a violation of the Franco-American Treaty, the French began impressing many American merchant ships just like the British had. Adams, infuriated by the actions of a supposed ally, sent representatives to fix the relations between these two nations, a meeting commonly known as the XYZ Affair. During this meeting, the Frenchmen dubbed “X”, “Y”, and “Z” demanded a huge bribe to allow the Americans to

Read More
927 Words | 4 Pages

Adams thrived in the role as Vice President because, although he was not very personable, he was a very effective politician. So having Adams as arbiter of the Senate meant that things got done. Having John

Read More
839 Words | 4 Pages

Martin Van Buren was born on December 5, 1782 in Kinderhook, New York. His parents, Maria and Abraham Van Buren, were a struggling Dutch family with six kids, who owned a tavern and an inn which hosted government workers and political meetings. Martin’s family owned six slaves, which was common for living in New York. Martin went to school until he was fourteen years old and then dropped out and did not attend college. After he dropped out of school, Van Buren worked as a law clerk in a lawyer’s office for seven years.

Read More
618 Words | 3 Pages

By defending the soldiers after they kill 5 colonists it portrays that John Adams was a generous and courageous man. John Adams believed that everyone deserved to be defended whenever they needed it. After many trials John Adams was able to successfully defended the soldiers. Since he defended the British people some people were mad at him which made him have less popularity for some time. John Adams was involved in many things that change America during his life such as being George’s Washington vice- president and then becoming the second president of the United

Read More
814 Words | 4 Pages

While John Adams was president he was faced with a problem, American ships were getting taken and the sailors were not safe. Earlier the Americans had a problem where the British would not leave the Ohio River Valley, because of this problem the American’s chief justice was sent to Britain to propose a peace treaty, the Jay treaty. This treaty proved successful and in this treaty Britain pulled their troops from the Ohio Valley. The French considered this to be an act of betrayal and attacked the Americans. To end these attacks, three representatives were sent from America to France.

Read More
66 Words | 1 Pages

During his time as president, Adams had decided to sign the Alien and Sedition Acts. The Alien acts was an act that had said that they could deport foreigners and make it harder for them to be able to vote in any election. Sedition Acts had said that if people were to write hateful against the government or president then it is considered as a

Read More
607 Words | 3 Pages

Adams lost faith in the political virtue of his countrymen. Adams saw them repeating the mistakes of Europe, especially in the pursuit of luxury, with its unavoidable social and political corruption. A lot more control and authority were needed to govern a society dividing into the aristocratic few and many democrats. John Adams hardly wrote three volumes of A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America. (Biography 1)

Read More
631 Words | 3 Pages

“Martin Van Buren was the eighth president of the United States from 1837 to 1841. He was one of the founders of the Democratic Party, and he was known as the “Little Magician” to his friends and the “Sly Fox” to his enemies because of his skill as a politician” (britannica.com). Martin worked at his father’s [tavern], which was [visited often] by lawyers and politicians. Martin Van Buren was a great politician and an even better president. Martin Van Buren worked in his father’s tavern as a child.

Read More
879 Words | 4 Pages

Adams greatly supported the fact that Washington wished to be the General of the Continental Army. Washington would defend Adams through a variety of letters and would often describe John as being high

Read More
486 Words | 2 Pages

Samuel Adams held such an important part in gaining independence for America, but he was the most underappreciated. Many people seem to overlook Adams because he didn't leave many primary sources behind like a journal, notes, or letters etc.. Adams studied journalism at Harvard, and went on to pursue this by defending colonists against royal authorities who overstepped their boundaries. Then from 1764, when the Stamp act arose, he had one main focus- to fight for American Independence. In the 1760’s and 1770’s Adams fought against the British for the American colonists.

Read More
529 Words | 3 Pages

During his presidency, a war between the French and British was making political difficulties for the United States. Adams's administration focused their diplomatic efforts on France, whose government had temporarily made commercial imports illegal. Adams sent three commissioners to France, but the French refused to negotiate or even speak to us unless the United States agreed to pay what amounted to a huge amount of money also known as a bribe. When this became the knowledge of the people, the nation banned out in favor of war.

Read More
515 Words | 3 Pages

His term as president was unfortunately marred with controversy. He supported and signed the contentious Sedition Act in 1798. Adams went on to build up the army and navy as result of an undeclared naval war (later called the Quasi-War) with France (1798–1800). The Sedition Act authorized the deportation or imprisonment of aliens viewed as “dangerous to the peace and safety of the United States.” The Act unfortunately went well past precluding a violent revolution.

Read More
764 Words | 4 Pages

Jackson is know for as being a strong and handsome person and was respected by the common man because he believed in slaves and gained his position from hard work. On the other hand, Adams grew up in a wealthy family and did to have to work as hard as Jackson to get his position. He had better morals and did not backdown on his beliefs to get a better position, but the only problem was that the common person could not relate to him which caused him to lose the election because he was unreliable, even though he was much smarted, and could have made a much better

Read More
985 Words | 4 Pages

The founding fathers were smart men who the world looked up to because of their smart decisions, actions, that directed the U.S. to what it is today. But sadly in today’s society most people either have forgotten the things they did for us, or they just do not care. The founding fathers were great men who led this country to victory in war and on the political front. And often early U.S. history is portrayed as moving smoothly for the colonies turning into the a country of its own , but in reality it was just the opposite. George Washington our first president had problems figuring out ways to control the new nation as it progressed under his leadership.

Read More
1079 Words | 5 Pages

Even though the creation of a constitution wasn’t the main objective of the Constitutional Convention of 1787, it definitely helped shape the United States to the country it is today. The Articles of Confederation, which was adopted in 1777, didn’t go as planned and left the United States bankrupt in 1786 (Linder). Realizing the major issues that have occurred, the Continental Congress finally called to meet in May 1787. Among the fifty-five delegates at the convention was George Washington. Before becoming our nations first president, Washington was one of the key leaders in creating our constitution.

Read More

More about John Adams A Success Or A Failure

Related Topics

Open Document