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In March 1797, John Adams took office as President of the United States. Although Adams had been a friend and admirer of Priestley before he took office, and would be so again, years later, he found it politically expedient to distance himself from Priestley during his term of office.
It was a time of worsening relations with France and, once again, Priestley came under attack because of his support of France. In particular, another ex-patriated Englishman, William Cobbett, writing under the name of Peter Porcupine, reviled Priestley as the enemy of religion, law, and order. It was alleged that Priestley was the head of a secret group that desired the overthrow of the English government. Porcupine attacked not only Priestley but, among others, Franklin, Rush, Price, and Talleyrand. His attacks continued until 1799 when he lost a libel suit to Rush and was forced to leave the country.
In July 1798, the Alien and Sedition acts were passed by congress which, in effect, abrogated free speech and made it a federal offense to criticize the government. These acts were to have ominous implications for Priestley and for his friend, Thomas Cooper. Cooper had become a naturalized American citizen so that, as a result of his speeches and publication of articles critical of President Adams, he was fined and imprisoned.
He had composed the critical articles while living in Priestley's house and it was rumored that Priestley might have written them or encouraged them but this was not the case.
In any case, Priestley had never given up his English citizenship so, under the Aliens Act, he could have been deported and, in fact, Secretaary of State Pickering proposed to Adams that they do so. Fortunately, Adams decided to spare his former friend.
In 1799 he published his Letters to the Inhabitants of Northumberland in which he gave an account of his religious and political principles and defended himself against the spurious charges of Peter Porcupine and others.
Finally, in 1800, Thomas Jefferson became President and Priestley wrote to a friend,
"To me the administration of Mr. Jefferson is the cause of peculiar satisfaction, as I now, for the first time in my life (and I shall soon enter my 70th year) find myself in any degree of favour with the government of this country in which I have lived, and I hope I shall die in the same pleasing situation."
In April 1800, however, there was another blow to his happiness, a family scandal that was one of the bitterest experiences of his life. His son, William, was accused by an anonymous correspondent in a Reading newspaper of having attempted, while Joseph, Jr. was in Europe, to poison his father and the rest of the household by adding arsenic to the meal chest. William and his family had moved to Middle Paxton six days before the alleged incident. William denied it in a letter to the paper and sent them a letter from his father which stated,
"I examined what remained of the flour and cannot say thst I found any appearance of arsenic in it....... Since, therefore, no real mischief has been done and it cannot be proven that any was intended, I shall make no further enquiry into the business.
I am. as ever, your affectionate father.... "
William was heavily in debt and had left to try to make good elsewhere. Priestley had undertaken to pay his debts, a total of 1300 pounds, and stated in a letter to Wilkinson
"I must not wholly desert him and, indeed, I feel more compassion than resentmenty on his account. He is gone to seek a settlement in the Western Territory (Louisiana) and I do not expect or wish to see him any more; but I shall continue to write to him and give him my best advice"