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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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