practical
difference between a government by law and a government by mass-meeting.

Jefferson was a master organizer. At letter-writing, the one means of
communication in those days, he was a Hercules. His pen never
wearied. He soon had a compact party. It included not only most of the
Anti-Federalists, but the small politicians, the tradesmen and artisans,
who had worked themselves into a ridiculous frenzy over the French
Revolution and who despised Washington for his noble neutrality. But
more than these, Jefferson won over a number of distinguished men who
had worked for the adoption of the Constitution, the ablest of whom was
James Madison, often called "the Father of the Constitution."

The Jeffersonians, thus representing largely the debtor and farmer
class, led by men of conspicuous abilities, proceeded to batter down the
prestige of the Federalists. They declared themselves opposed to large
expenditures of public funds, to eager exploitation of government
ventures, to the Bank, and to the Navy, which they termed "the great
beast with the great belly." The Federalists included the commercial
and creditor class and that fine element in American life composed
of leading families with whom domination was an instinct, all led,
fortunately, by a few idealists of rare intellectual attainments. And,
with the political stupidity often characteristic of their class, they
stumbled from blunder to blunder. In 1800 Thomas Jefferson, who adroitly
coined the mistakes of his opponents into political currency for
himself, was elected President. He had received no more electoral votes
than Aaron Burr, that mysterious character in our early politics, but
the election was decided by the House of Representatives, where, after
seven days' balloting, several Federalists, choosing what to them was
the lesser of two evils, cast the deciding votes for Jefferson. When the
Jeffersonians came to power, they no longer opposed federal pretensions;
they now, by one of those strange veerings often found in American
politics, began to give a liberal interpretation to the Constitution,
while the Federalists with equal inconsistency became strict
constructionists. Even Jefferson was ready to sacrifice his theory of
strict construction in order to acquire the province of Louisiana.

The Jeffersonians now made several concessions to the manufacturers,
and with their support linked to that of the agriculturists Jeffersonian
democracy flourished wit