Two Presidential Let-downs

Two Presidential Let-downs

John Adams

• Born in 1735 in Massachusetts

• Actively involved in the Independence movement.

• Served as a diplomat to France after the war.

• In the presidential election of 1789, Washington was overwhelmingly elected President.

• Adams, with the second most votes, became the vice-president.

• Adams served as vice-president from 1789-1797.

• Washington almost never consulted Adams on anything.

• About the job as Vice-President, Adams said “This is the most unimportant position humans ever made.”

• Adams narrowly beat Thomas Jefferson in the 1796 election.

The XYZ Affair

• In the time after the American Revolution, relations between France and America had worsened.

(Oops…)

• France was going through a revolution (which the Americans were greatly responsible for starting).

• Adams sent three US diplomats to France to negotiate peace.

• The French being… well… French… deliberately refused to meet with the Americans unless they paid a huge bribe to three French officials.

• These French officials were later nicknamed “X, Y and Z”.

• This refusal to meet made relations with France even worse… to the point where we nearly went to war.

The Alien and Sedition Acts

• Anti-French feelings were very high in America in 1798.

• Congress passed the Alien Act which increased the number of years required to be a citizen from five to fourteen.

• The president was also given the power to deport anyone deemed, “dangerous to the peace and safety of the United States." – Ex – French people

• The Sedition Act made it a crime to publish "false, scandalous, and malicious writing" against the government or its officials.

• This was a slap in the face to the first amendment’s freedom of the press and freedom of speech.

OUCH!

The Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions• Many people naturally disliked the

Alien and Sedition Acts.

• They thought it was expanding the power of the Federal government too much and interfering with the states.

• Thomas Jefferson and James Madison (yes, him again) wrote these two documents, in secret, to protest.

• They claimed that the Federal government couldn’t exercise powers that were not delegated to it.

• If they did, the laws were illegal and the states didn’t have to follow them.

• This led to the concept of nullification.

• “Nullification” – when a state views a law as being unconstitutional and refuses to follow it.

Election of 1800

• John Adams was a fairly unpopular president (although much of it was congress’ fault).

• He lost his bid for re-election to Thomas Jefferson (an anti-federalist).

• When Jefferson took over the presidency, this marks the first time where there was a peaceful transition of power between two political parties.

• Things had not always been that easy in other countries.

John Marshall

• John Marshall was the first strong chief justice of the Supreme Court (4th over all).

The Midnight Judges

• The Judiciary Act of 1801 was passed by the Federalist congress after John Adams lost the election of 1800 to Thomas Jefferson.

• This act allowed the president to create new judge positions.

• Right before Jefferson took over the presidency, Adams gave several Federalist judges jobs.

• These judges were known as the “Midnight Judges” because Adams submitted their names the night before he left office.

• This weakened the power of the Anti-Federalist party who was taking over the presidency.

Thomas Jefferson

Marbury vs. Madison

• William Marbury was one of the Federalists judges appointed by Adams.

• The Senate approved the appointments, but the new president, Jefferson, ordered the Secretary of State James Madison to not send the official papers to the judges.

• Jefferson hoped to delay the appointment of Federalist judges until the newly elected Anti-Federalist (or Republican) congress could overturn the Judiciary Act of 1801.

• Marbury sued Madison for the right to take over his post.

VS

• In the Supreme Court case, Marbury won the right to take over his post.

• This court case established the principle of Judicial Review.

• This means that the Supreme Court has the right to review and overturn laws that the other branches pass.

• This greatly increased the power of the Judicial Branch.

The Louisiana Purchase

• Napoleon took over Spain, and most of the rest of Europe, between 1800 and 1810.

• The Spanish “agreed” to give the Louisiana Territory back to the French.

• The French lost this land following the French and Indian War.

• As America was gradually spreading west, Jefferson realized the need to have some control over the Mississippi River.

• Jefferson sent James Monroe and Robert Livingston to Paris in 1803 to negotiate a treaty where the US would buy the port of New Orleans and the surrounding area.

• To their surprise, the French offered not only New Orleans, but all of their remaining territory in North America.

• The French were fighting a huge war in Europe against the British.

• A slave revolt in Haiti, led by Toussaint L'Ouverture, was also causing problems.

• The French wanted to cut their losses and make some money.

=

• Jefferson was a strict Constitutionalist (meaning he did not want to overstep the powers given to the President).

• Senate was supposed to approve all foreign treaties.

• Jefferson could not turn down this stroke of good luck and agreed to buy the Louisiana Territory from the French for $23.2 million.

• This is about 4 cents an acre.

• Needless to say, many people in the Senate were not amused.

• Also, they had no idea what was even in this territory they had just bought.

Note the huge blank area

Lewis and Clark

• Jefferson organized an expedition led by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to explore the west.

• “The object of your mission is to explore the Missouri river, and

such principal stream of it as by its course and communication with the waters of the Pacific Ocean whether the Columbia, Oregon, Colorado or any other river may

offer the most direct and practicable water communication

across this continent for the purposes of commerce.”

– Thomas Jefferson

• They were to study the Indian tribes, plants and animals, geology, Western terrain.

• They were also supposed to determine potential interference of British and French Canadian hunters and trappers who were already well established in the area.

• A party of 33 men left Illinois on May 14, 1804 and began sailing up the Missouri River.

Sacagawea

• When the party entered what is now North Dakota they met French fur trader Toussaint Charbonneau and his Native American wife, Sacagawea.

• These two were familiar with much of the terrain, and helped negotiate with nearby Native tribes.

(She liked to point at things…)

• Lewis and Clark’s whole trip took about two years.

Major Accomplishments

Numerous detailed maps of the west

• Over 300 new plant and animal species documented.

• Opened diplomatic relations between the US and Native tribes.

• Strengthened the US claim on the Oregon Territory.

• Started America’s sometimes unhealthy obsession with the West.

Barbary Pirates

• The Barbary Coast was a series of Arab states along the Mediterranean Sea

• The Arabs captured ships, sold their crews as slaves or demanded payment for them as hostages.

• To prevent this, many European nations paid tribute to them.

• The US made annual payments that eventually totaled in the millions of dollars.

• This is basically terrorism in the 1800’s.

• In 1804 Jefferson sent a fleet of several US ships to protect American shipping.

• Within a year, the US won several victories.

• These victories are immortalized in the Marine Hymn in the line… “to the shores of Tripoli”