The Adams administration faced several severe tests. It was a mixed administration. Adams was a Federalist. Jefferson, the vice-president, was a Democratic-Republican. Federalists were increasingly divided between CONSERVATIVES such as Hamilton and MODERATES such as Adams who still saw himself as above party politics. Hamilton opposed Adams as the Federalist candidate. This helped create the circumstances whereby Jefferson slipped past the Federalist candidate, THOMAS PINCKNEY, to become vice president Although Hamilton resigned from the cabinet in 1795, he remained influential and his advice was sought and followed by many Federalists — even some who remained in Adams' cabinet.
Beyond these considerable problems in his own party, Adams also faced a major international crisis. The French were outraged by what they viewed as an ANGLO-AMERICAN ALLIANCE in Jay's Treaty. France suspended diplomatic relations with the U.S. at the end of 1796 and seized more than 300 American ships over the next two years.