rent person from Thomas Jefferson,
practical politician. Paradoxical as it may seem, the new President,
of all men of his day, was the least likely to undertake revolutionary
policies; and it was just this acquaintance with Jefferson's mental
habits which led his inveterate enemy, Alexander Hamilton, to advise his
party associates to elect Jefferson rather than Burr.

The President broke with precedent, however, in one small particular. He
was resolved not to follow the practice of his Federalist predecessors
and address Congress in person. The President's speech to the two houses
in joint session savored too much of a speech from the throne; it was a
symptom of the Federalist leaning to monarchical forms and practices. He
sent his address, therefore, in writing, accompanied with letters to
the presiding officers of the two chambers, in which he justified this
departure from custom on the ground of convenience and economy of time.
"I have had principal regard," he wrote, "to the convenience of the
Legislature, to the economy of their time, to the relief from the
embarrassment of immediate answers on subjects not yet fully before
them, and to the benefits thence resulting to the public affairs." This
explanation deceived no one, unless it was the writer himself. It was
thoroughly characteristic of Thomas Jefferson that he often explained
his conduct by reasons which were obvious afterthoughts--an unfortunate
habit which has led his contemporaries and his unfriendly biographers to
charge him with hypocrisy. And it must be admitted that his preference
for indirect methods of achieving a purpose exposed him justly to the
reproaches of those who liked frankness and plain dealing. It is not
unfair, then, to wonder whether the President was not thinking rather
of his own convenience when he elected to address Congress by written
message, for he was not a ready nor an impressive speaker. At all
events, he established a precedent which remained unbroken until another
Democratic President, one hundred and twelve years later, returned to
the practice of Washington and Adams.

If the Federalists of New England are to be believed, hypocrisy marked
the presidential message from the very beginning to the end. It began
with a pious expression of thanks "to the beneficent Being" who had
been pleased to breathe into the warring peoples of Europe a spirit of
forgiveness and conciliation. But even the most bigoted Federalist who
could not