John Adams was a Federalists who won the election of 1796, and came into office on March 4th, 1797 (as all presidents would until Eisenhower, who then started the tradition of coming into office on January 20th, which is continued today). The Quasi-French War with France, a conflict that occured without an outbreak of war, occured during his presidency. In addition, some major political battles took place between the Federalists and the Democratic Republicans (also known as the Anti-Federalists). These battles could be seen in the fight between the Alien and Sedition Acts, which were enacted by the Federalist government, and fought back against by the Democratic Republicans with the Virginia & Kentucky Resolutions. These resolutions used the ideas of John Locke to argue that the federal government formed a "compact" or contract among the states and possessed only certain delegated powers, and therefore the states could nullify the Alien and Sedition Acts through the process of nullification. Adams lost the reelection in the dirty election of 1800, which Thomas Jefferson won.