Somewhere in the great beyond where presidents go after death, John Adams has a big smile on his face. He hated what Thomas Jefferson’s supporters were saying about the Federalist Party that Adams championed and that controlled Congress. So the nation’s second president persuaded Congress to pass the Alien and Sedition Acts. Several newspaper editors and writers, as well as a congressman, were then prosecuted for criticizing government. The acts were instantly unpopular, however, and helped elect Jefferson as president in 1800. The acts expired and passed into well-earned historical disrepute.