John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and James Monroe

Overview of the four presidents following George Washington...

·         John Adams –

            In 1796 John Adams officially became the second president of the United States. Upon becoming president, he made it clear that he was dedicated to make a strong federal government, showing his federalist views.  He also made it clear that he did not want the young country to get into the European wars at the time. That’s why it was so troubling to him when the crisis with the French became a problem. They began beating up the young country and refused to make an peaceful agreement. That’s when the XYZ affairs took place. Under the threat that the French could attack at any time, Adams agreed that the army had to be built up, and stand prepared. The following years were used building up the Navy and Army, as to prepare for the war against the French. Luckily this war didn’t take place, but it was still extremely close, and lead to improvements to our protection from outside threats.

·         Thomas Jefferson –

            In the election of 1800 a great shift took place. The previous two presidents had both been federalists, but as Thomas Jefferson came in as the third president, the democratic-republicans took the stand for the first time. Jefferson made it clear by the way he acted, dressed, and lead, that he was greatly in favor of creating a small government with great democratic ideas. He dressed very normally and discussed with an even attention to each individual no matter their ranking. One foreign policy event that Jefferson saw as president was the Impressment and the Embargo act. During the Impressment British started seizing American ships that they saw crossing the ocean for trading. To stop these acts, Jefferson passed the Embargo Act that forbids the trading to Britain, in hopes that this punch to their economy would help peace between the two countries.  As a result to this act, foreign trade drop greatly, and American local farmers and merchants needed to step up to fit the demands of the growing country.

·         James Madison –

            Come 1809, America was once again searching for a new president. James Madison was the man who stepped into the fourth presidents position. America was under some difficult times when Madison took office, and something clearly had to be done. The British was a growing power in the world, and many Federalists were eager for war. They accused the British of urging Indian attacks, and many others longed for expansion into Canada.  When 1812 came, there was no option but to start the second war with Britain. It was a tough war for the Americas. Just like their original war with Britain, they had a natural disadvantage with their smaller army, but also home court advantage at the same time. Americans also had a tough time agreeing on whether or not they should actually be going into war again. Finally after two years, both countries stopped fighting and signed the Treaty of Ghent. This ended the war in a draw, no land gained or lost. Although the Americans had not taken the land from the British, they now had formed a peaceful way of ending future disputes.

·         James Monroe –

            Once Madison’s time was up as president, America voted for James Monroe to become the fifth president of the United States.  Monroe was another Democratic-Republican candidate, and was a very popular candidate in the 1817 election. All in all, the United States seemed to be flowing more smoothly than ever. Following the war, they had a boost in the economy, and had hopes to continue to be a great nation.  They called it the Era of Good Feelings. Although it was good times for many aspects of American life, there was also a few problems to the south in Florida. Spain had always owned the very southern point of the United States, and on the boarder there were occasional attacks that needed to be stopped. In attempt to expand the nation as well  as avoid possible future problems, Monroe set to work trying to gain this bit of land for America. Spain knew they had little control over their land in Florida and other parts of the continent, so they decided to strike a deal with America. They signed the Adams-Onis treaty which finally gave the United States ownership of Florida as well as land stretching all the way to the Pacific Ocean. For only 5 million dollars, America had finally gotten a lot of land stretching from sea to sea. Spain kept their Texas and Mexico, but it was with great joy that the Americans moved even further into the country.