hey kids welcome to part two of America a New Nation last time we talked about George Washington what made him such a great president why did corn farmers hate him and what was his advice to future generations this time we're looking at John Adams what kind of president was he did he really hate aliens and what was his legacy after he left office so buckle up that seat belt put in drive we're going on a road trip of learning let's hit the road [Music] so who was John Adams well he was the first vice president of the United States he was the second president of the United States and unlike George Washington he only served one term i could tell you what John Adams thought about the job of president or I could let him tell you himself with today's in their own words segment no man who ever held the office of president would congratulate a friend on obtaining it he will make one man ungrateful and 100 men his enemy for every office he can bestow what Adams meant by that was that it was impossible to be president without creating enemies with each decision you make to understand why Adams ended up feeling this way about the presidency you need to understand the major political parties of his time let's take a look at these two parties with this versus that well here we are folks at the election of 1796 george Washington has stepped down after two terms as president and no one is quite sure who should be our next president the two contenders are John Adams and Thomas Jefferson let's take a closer look at our two contenders in this corner at 5'7 weighing an estimated 245 lbs it's John Adams fighting for the Federalist Party and in this corner at 6' 1/2 in weighing in at an estimated 170 lbs is Thomas Jefferson fighting for the Democratic Republicans which side will make the decisive blown that wins this momentous election only time will tell and there's the bell both sides are coming out swinging the Federalists throw a right cross to get votes by supporting a bigger more powerful government the Republicans defend a counter punch by promoting small government that protects freedom i have to wonder if that will get them any vote saying that the smaller government under the Articles of Confederation was an absolute failure the Federalist swing that left hook right in the Republican jaw with the idea that only the elite members of society should run the government the Republicans are staggered back but are still on their feet they jab the Federalists right in the chin responding "Only the common man should run the government." and follow up that jab with a nasty right cross siding with France in the debate over who should America ally with wow folks this fight is really going back and forth have the Democratic Republicans made a point with America that they should support France since they supported them in the war or is this just another trap by the Federalists it looks like the Federalists have battled back they have supported Britain in this fight saying that the French are much too violent in their revolution to be supported and I got to say they have a good point i'm not sure how much more the Republicans can take that last one really put them on the ropes it looks like the Republicans are running out of gas do they have one punch left oh they do it's a left hook this time the Republicans supporting farmers as America's main industry but the Federalists block it by favoring factories and manufacturing oh what a fight and there's the bell let's check the judges scorecard and see who won that round after round one the Federalists are victorious and John Adams has been elected to the presidency of the United States well folks there you go as you can see John Adams wins the election but not by much actually he only beats Thomas Jefferson by two electoral votes much different than what he experienced as vice president under George Washington who won the electoral college unanimously this turns out to be a very tough thing for John Adams who wishes he could be that unanimous president that George Washington was but as he goes through his presidency he finds it's much more difficult to manage a country so evenly divided as it was and as you can see even though George Washington warned against having political parties they emerged anyway and became the dominant political force in the country up next we're talking about one of John Adams first major challenges called the XYZ affair which had nothing to do with him checking his zipper let's take a closer look in today's story time line [Music] today on story time line the XYZ affair once upon a time in the land of America there was a war a war for independence and freedom against Great Britain and America figured out they couldn't win this war on their own they needed the help of a country known as France and America was able to defeat Great Britain and set up a new government of its own that would ensure the freedom of its people the French were so inspired by this new revolution in America they decided to start their own revolution and get rid of their king unfortunately for the French Great Britain came onto the scene and invaded their country while they were vulnerable the French needing help turned to America but it was much too busy to go send soldiers to help this made the French very angry and they decided they would try and drag America into the war by attacking its trade ships if they could get America angry enough they might get involved however John Adams didn't want to go to war he was trying to heed the advice of that wise sage George Washington to keep the peace and not get involved in Europe so he sent off three diplomats to France to ask them to please stop attacking their ships when they arrived in France they were met with a demand for a bribe and told "If you would like us to stop attacking your ships you will need to pay us a tribute money to our king a bribe for us and a loan to help us in our war against Great Britain." Obviously the American diplomats left angry and returned home with the news once Americans heard that they were being asked to pay tribute for a simple request like not attacking their ships they embraced the slogan millions for defense but not one cent for tribute what they were saying was "We'd rather put our money into building a bigger navy than to pay France any money to stop attacking our ships." And they did they purchased 12 frigots to bolster their navy to make it larger and to make it more of a threat overseas they also renounced their treaty they had with France after the Revolutionary War and authorized American ships to attack French ships when necessary the Federalist Party was eager to put these 12 new ships to use and declare war on France john Adams however kept trying to negotiate with the French in the end it worked he was able to persuade France into not attacking American ships in fact he said this was his greatest accomplishment as president he kept the peace when his own party didn't want him to and they lived happily ever after well not really but that's kind of how the story is supposed to end okay finally let's talk about aliens first of all I'm not talking about aliens from outer space i'm actually talking about people who are from another country so why would Adams not like people from other countries who came to America well let's back up about halfway through his presidency Adams and his party were losing popularity and were fearing a loss in the next election they started thinking about what they could do to hold on to power they decided to use the conflict with France as an excuse to pass some new laws and help them silence their opponents the Federalists decided to scare American people into fearing immigrants as they could be working for the French they passed a law giving the president power to kick out of the country any alien he felt was dangerous the president could then kick out vocal immigrants who would encourage people to vote against him the other law they passed was known as the Sedition Act this made it against the law to criticize the governments Congress president or vice president in speech or print if you were caught doing so you could be fined or even put in jail this would give the Federalists a big advantage during the elections because it would be against the law to criticize the president but his opponent could be torn apart in the papers or in speeches well it turns out the laws didn't work in fact it made it worse the Alien Sedition Act turned the American population even more against the Federalists so the winner of round two which would be the election of 1800 is the Democratic Republicans and it's a knockout the Federalists never won another presidential election and the party soon died out altogether so what well after today you should be able to explain the answers to the following questions what was the difference between the first two major political parties in the United States what was the XYZ affair and how did it affect the United States what were the Alien and Sedition Acts and how did they affect the US and the Federalist Party well there you go if you know all those then you'll learn learn what you needed to know stay tuned next time while we talk about Thomas Jefferson and how he made those pirates walk the plank