John Adams was not successful at ensuring domestic tranquility because he was not able to keep Americans satisfied with his policies. One of the policies that worked against him was the Alien and Sedition Acts. These acts discriminated against non-Americans. Even though the law was supposed to be enforced uniformly, the laws were usually used selectively against people whom the government disliked.

In 1786 President John Adams got upset at a newspaperman named Benjamin Franklin Bache. He was angry at Bache because he had called him "old, querulous, Bald, blind, crippled, Toothless Adams." (Quote from "How an Earlier Patriot Act Brought Down a Former President") Adams then passed the Alien and Sedition Acts. These acts were uses to attack American people. Bache died in prison of typhus for undermining the government, because of insulting Adams. Causing the editors of his newspaper to go into hiding.

Furthermore an American was...