Summarize this:
John Adams' Presidency
Even as Washington was writing his Farewell Address, political parties were
working to gain majorities in the two houses of Congress and to line up enough
electors from the various states to elect the next president. The vice president,
John Adams, was the Federalists' candidate, while former secretary of state
Thomas Jefferson was the choice of the Democratic-Republicans.
Adams won by three electoral votes. Jefferson became vice-president,
since the original Constitution gave that office to the candidate receiving the
second highest number of electoral votes. (Since the ratification of the 12th
Amendment in 1804, the president and vice-president have run as a team.) 
The XYZ Affair
Troubles abroad related to the French Revolution presented Adams with the first
major challenge of his presidency. Americans were angered by reports that U.S.
merchant ships were being seized by French warships and privateers. Seeking a peaceful settlement, Adams sent a delegation to Paris to negotiate with
the French government. Certain French ministers, known only as X, Y, and Z
because their names were never revealed, requested bribes as the basis for entering into negotiations. The American delegates indignantly refused. Newspaper
reports of the demands made by X, Y, and Z infuriated many Americans, who
now clamored for war against France. "Millions for defense, but not one cent
for tribute" became the slogan of the hour. One faction of the Federalist party,
led by Alexander Hamilton, hoped that by going to war the United States could
gain French and Spanish lands in North America.
President Adams, on the other hand, resisted the popular sentiment for war.
Recognizing that the U.S. Army and Navy were not yet strong enough to fight a
major power, the president avoided war and sent new ministers to Paris.
116 U.S. HISTORY: PREPARING FOR THE ADVANCED PLACEMENT® EXAM
The Alien and Sedition Acts
Anger against France strengthened the Federalists in the congressional elections of 1798 enough to win a majority in both houses. The Federalists took
advantage of their victory by enacting laws to restrict their political opponents,
the Democratic-Republicans. For example, since most immigrants voted
Democratic-Republican, the Federalists passed the Naturalization Act, which
increased from 5 to 14 the years required for immigrants to qualify for U.S.
citizenship. They also passed the Alien Acts, which authorized the president to
deport aliens considered dangerous and to detain enemy aliens in time of war.
Most seriously, they passed the Sedition Act, which made it illegal for newspaper editors to criticize either the president or Congress and imposed fines or
imprisonment for editors who violated the law.
The Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions
Democratic-Republicans argued that the Alien and Sedition Acts violated
rights guaranteed by the 1st Amendment of the Constitution. In 1799, however,
the Supreme Court had not yet established the principle of judicial review (see
Chapter 7). Democratic-Republican leaders challenged the legislation of the
Federalist Congress by enacting nullifying laws of their own in the state legislatures. The Kentucky legislature adopted a resolution that had been written by
Thomas Jefferson, and the Virginia legislature adopted a resolution introduced
by James Madison. Both resolutions declared that the states had entered into
a "compact" in forming the national government, and, therefore, if any act of
the federal government broke the compact, a state could nullify the federal law.
Although only Kentucky and Virginia adopted nullifying resolutions in 1799,
they set forth an argument and rationale that would be widely used in the nullification controversy of the 1830s (see Chapter 10).
The immediate crisis over the Alien and Sedition Acts faded when the
Federalists lost their majority in Congress after the election of 1800, and the
new Democratic-Republican majority allowed the acts to expire or repealed
them. In addition, the Supreme Court under John Marshall asserted its power
in deciding whether a certain federal law was constitutional.