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 into a foreign policy crisis with its onetime ally France.
Adams’ Federalist Party wanted to fight; the Democratic-Republicans did not. As the situation with France, caused by the seizure of American merchant ships, deteriorated, Adams had to prepare his country for war.
In an attempt to silence the Federalists’ political opponents, he signed the Sedition Act of 1798. The new law attempted to crack down on critical writings about government officials, and it was aimed at Democratic-Republican newspaper editors in particular.
