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Why Was John Adams Ineffective

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John Adams presidency was controversial. Following George Washington’s presidency, John Adams became president but not by many votes. John Adams presidency was an ineffective President of the United States. I believe he was ineffective due to the XYZ Affair, the Alien and Sedition ACts, his political parties, and him isolating his cabinet and him as vice president.
First of all, the XYZ Affairs and Alien and Sedition Acts played an impact on John Adams ineffective presidency. The first reason Adams was an ineffective president with the XYZ Affair was because of many reasons. Adams talked bad about France. He let everybody know about the XYZ Affair which included three French agents. They all demanded bribes, concessions, and some loans from the American Government in exchange for peace discussions. He asked Congress for money to build the army and navy. Adams sent a commission to France for negotiations which included Pinckney, John Marshall, and Elbridge Gerry. The agents told Adams that if he wanted an official reception from France, Americans would have to apologize for Adam’s criticizing words. Also they would have to make a payment of 1.3 million livres and loan France thirty-two million florins for its war with …show more content…

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) The works stated that a strong, independent executive was essential to mediate between opposing interests. Adams assumed that the search for equality would bring chaos and the loss of freedom that the French revolutionaries

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• When Adams became president, the dispute with France carried over. The French looked at Jay’s Treaty as an American attempt to help the British in the war with France. To punish the U.S., the French took American ships that carried cargo to Brittan. During the fall of 1797, Adams sent a delegation to France with the hopes to end the dispute. The French foreign master wouldn’t meet with the Americans and instead demanded a bribe and loan from the Americans.

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Since the Revolution Jefferson and Adams parted ways and became enemies. When Jefferson was President he sent a letter to Abigail Adams in which he forgave Adams for what he had done. Abigail was angered by this and the two sent each other letters back about why the other was wrong. Adams had his own thing going on during this time. He was angry that everyone else was getting more credit than they deserved.

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At this point in time however, France and Britain are enemies, so in retaliation, France started seizing American ships. Two months into his presidency, Adams called a special session of Congress to discuss what should be done about the French’s ongoing actions. Just like Washington did, Adams met with his advisors prior to meeting with Congress, to discuss their potential course of action, and then informed Congress of his plans to negotiate with France by sending three American diplomats over to France to negotiate. However, when the diplomat’s arrived in France, they were told that they would only be able to initiate negotiation with the French Foreign Minister in exchange for a bribe. The diplomat’s took this attempt at bribery offensively, and the diplomat’s left France before any formal negotiations took place.

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