The Federalists favored a strong government. In the excitement caused by the troubles with France, very stringent law were passed by them. Foreigners were required to live in America fourteen years before they could be naturalized. By what was called the "Alien Law," the President was given authority to send out of the country, without trial, any "alien" or unnaturalized foreigner. By the "Sedition Law," speakers and newspaper writers were to be severely punished for "libeling" the officers of the government. Many of the people thought the alien law took away the right of trial by jury, and that the sedition law attacked free speech and a free press.

In the presidential election of 1800, John Adams was the Federalist candidate a second time, but he was defeated, and the Federalist party never was able to elect another President. The Federalists had secured the adoption of the Federal Constitution; they had made the national government strong; and they had begun the work of paying the national debt in full, and so making the credit of the government good. No party ever did a better work than the Federalists did in bringing a bankrupt and disorderly confederacy into a firm union.

But the Federalists leaned too much to the English notions of government that had prevailed before the Revolution. The Republicans held more to the equality of people; they trusted the people, and believed in progress toward a larger personal liberty. The Federalist movement made us a nation; but the movement represented by the old Republican party made us republicans and Americans.

It was the intention of those who framed the Constitution that the people should not vote for particular people for the presidency. They were to choose in each State a certain number of people called "electors." These were to select a President. But, instead of choosing eminent people, and leaving the choice of a President to them, the people vote for electors pledged beforehand to cast their votes for the candidates of their party. The people thus vote for the President. It was provided at first that each elector should vote for two candidates for President. The candidate who received the highest number was to be the President, the one having the next highest was to be Vice President. The effect of this, in 1796, was to make John Adams President, and his opponent, Thomas Jefferson, Vice President. The President and Vice President thus belonged to opposite parties.

In 1800 the Republicans resolved to elect Jefferson President and Aaron Burr Vice President. But, as the only way of electing a Vice President was by voting for him as one of the two candidates for President, it happened that both Jefferson and Burr received the votes of all the Republican electors, and had, therefore, exactly the same number of electoral votes, although nobody had thought of Burr for President. The Constitution provided then, as it does now, that the choice between the two, in case of a tie-vote, should be by the House of Representatives. The Federalists disliked Jefferson in particular, as the great chief of the Republicans; the most of them, therefore, voted for Burr. This produced a new tie in the House of Representatives, and there was danger that the 4th of March would arrive and find the country without a President; but, after a long struggle, some of the Federalists cast blank votes, and allowed Jefferson to be elected. This dangerous struggle led to a change in the Constitution, by which the electors were to vote for but one candidate for President and one for Vice President. This method of voting for electors still prevails.

During Jefferson's time, the United States was at peace with all the great powers. The wars raging in Europe had injured the commerce of England and France. Foreign merchants, whose countries were at war, preferred to send goods in American vessels, to prevent their being captured by the enemy. In this way American commerce became very prosperous.

The states along the southern coast of the Mediterranean had long carried on a piratical warfare against the northern European countries. The nations of northern Europe paid them a yearly tribute to protect their ships from robbery. The United States was obliged to redeem from slavery Americans captured by the Dey of Algiers, and also to pay tribute. But in 1801 the Pasha [pash-aw'] of Tripoli [trip'-o-ly], having been refused additional presents, broke into open war.

This war may almost be said to mark the birth of the American navy. It was a period in which Americans were fond of dangerous exploits. The officers and people of this small sea-force performed acts of daring before Tripoli which have never been forgotten, and which yet serve as an example to their successors. In many actions Americans boarded the pirate ships, and fought in desperate hand-to-hand encounters, with swords, pikes, and bayonets. The frigate Philadelphia, having run on rocks, was captured by the Tripolitans, and the crew reduced to slavery. Lieutenant Decatur ran into the harbor at night in a ketch, boarded the frigate and burned her, escaping with his people by rowing his little boat under a storm of fire from the enemies batteries. After four years of blockade and war, the ruler of Tripoli agreed to terms. He made a treaty of peace in 1805.

But in 1812, Algiers, another of the Barbary powers, declared war against this country, captured American vessels, and reduced the crews to slavery. The same Stephen Decatur, who as a lieutenant burned the Philadelphia, was sent to the Mediterranean Sea, in 1815, as commodore of a squadron, He captured the chief vessels of the Dey, and forced that prince to release his prisoners, and to come on board the commodore's ship and sign a treaty. The United States never afterward paid tribute to any of the pirate powers.