Alien and Sedition Acts were reviled in their time, and John Adams was not sorry to see them go
- Written by Marianne Holdzkom, Associate Professor of History, Kennesaw State University
When John Adams became the second president of the United States in 1797, he inherited from George Washington a new experiment in government and a bit of a mess. The country’s two political parties – the Federalists and the Democratic-Republicans – were increasingly hostile to one another, and the young nation was sinking deeper...