John Adams, Essay Example

John Adams was the second president of the United States after George Washington, after serving two terms, or 8 years, as Vice President under Washington.  He served only 1 term in office and was succeeded by Thomas Jefferson in 1800, the first of the Democratic Republicans to serve as President.  The election of 1800 presented the new country with a kink.  The election came with a  close tie between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr.  Adams came in third.  The tie between Jefferson and Burr was by 73 votes.  According to the constitution, congress would vote to decide the winner.  The vote in congress still ended in a tie, and it took 36 re-votes to finally determine a winner.  The reasons why Adams lost to Jefferson are complex.  Washington, the first president and a leader in the federalist party, had died in 1799, and his loss weakened the strength of the federalist party under which Adams was running.  Also, Adams has passed the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798, which were highly unpopular.  It is difficult to find fault with Thomas Jefferson’s, Adams successor’s, presidency.  Jefferson has often been called one of the greatest presidents of the U.S.  However, a highly unpopular bill, the Embargo Act, was passed by Jefferson but repealed by the end of Jefferson’s second term.  The main failure of Jefferson’s presidency is that although Jefferson has written extensively against the institution of slavery, he did not eliminate it during his presidency.  Jefferson did sign a bill on March 3, 1807 making slave importation illegal in the U.S., however slavery remained a legal U.S. Institution.