The Whiskey Rebellion <u>was not</u> part of John Adams' administration as it happened during George Washington's government, in which John Adams was Vice President.
The following may be considered the most important happenings during John Adams' administration:
In 1798, being neutral about the Great Britain V. France affair, President John Adams did not wanted to take part on the war by siding with France, aligning his acts with George Washington's <u>Proclamation of Neutrality.</u> This attitude caused France's government to attack U.S ships, on retaliation, recalling the <u>Franco-American treaty</u>, that promised mutual help against British forces, creating a situation that leaded to a quasi-war (almost official war). Then, the President sent three commissioners -Charles Pickney, John Marshall and Elbridge Gerry- to deal with the issue in France, with the purpose of making a peaceful settlement and protect commercial foreign relations, and they were received by agents of the French Foreign Minister, Charles Maurice Talleyrand, each one of the agents receiving a code name in official documents: Jean-Conrad Hottinguer named as the "X", Pierre Bellamy as the "Y" and Lucien Hauteval, being the "Z". Then, these French agents demanded money to stop attacking U.S ships, a bribe for Talleyrand of $250,000 and a loan of $10,000,000 to France, just to "start negotiating".These facts, then became known as XYZ affairs.
Deciding not to accept French demands, the United States' congress decided to invest on war ships, preparing the country for the war, thus launching a counter-attack for the depredation of U.S ships: a Naval protection force, the U.S Navy.
Alien and Sedition acts
Then, by the time the war was beginning , there were an anti-french commotion rising among the Republicans, which has caused the creation of a series of federal laws that altered U.S foreign relations: the time of residency required to foreign citizen naturalization changed from five years to fourteen; in war period, every non-naturalized foreign males over fourteen could be <em>"apprehended, restrained, secured and removed, as alien enemies". </em>
At the time, as well, there was serious anti-Republican feelings by American People, then it was written <em>"An act for the punishment of certain crimes against the United States" </em>that restrained public and particular acts opposing government measures, including press publications, thus criminalizing freedom of speech, characterizing the act as unconstitutional.
