might become naturalized after a residence of two years in the United States. An act of 1795 increased the term of residence to five years, and the act of 1798 provided for a residence of fourteen years. This last-named act was repealed on April 14, 1802, and the term of residence placed at five years, where it still remains.

Less to the credit of the Republican party was the repeal of the Bankruptcy law of 1800. Jefferson and his followers exalted agriculture above commerce and thought that legislation should have the former rather than the latter in mind. The act was repealed in December of 1803.

The civil service under Jefferson has been the subject of violent controversy. In a letter to Dr. Benjamin Rush, dated March 24, 1801, Jefferson outlined his policy in regard to appointments and removals, "I will expunge," he wrote, "the effects of Mr. Adams's indecent conduct, in crowding nominations after he knew they were not for himself, till 9 o'clock of the night, at 12 o'clock of which he was to go out of office.

be made for misconduct.

Some removals must
Of the thousand of

officers, therefore, in the United States, a very few individuals only, probably not twenty, will be removed; and these only for doing what they ought not to have done." This was a fair and a just platform, but Jefferson was not able to stand squarely upon it on account of the pressure brought to bear by hordes of hungry office-seekers. Disciples in high places also pleaded for the men who sought the loaves and fishes. On April 15, 1801, Gideon Granger remarked in a letter to Jefferson: "First, the principle cannot be controverted, that it is just, fair and honorable that the friends of the government should have at least as great a proportion of the honors and offices of the government as they are of the whole people. for already

it is used as an argument to affect our elections that the President used the Democrats to ride into office, that now seated there he has evinced his contempt for them, and will rely solely on the Federalists for support

." On

May 12th of the same year, Pierrepont Edwards, son of Jonathan Edwards, the famous preacher, wrote to Jefferson: "The Collector at Middletown deserves a dismission on more grounds than one. Violent, irritable, priest-ridden, implacable, a ferocious Federalist, and a most indecent enemy to you and your administration,-one of the toasts drank on the 4th of July last at Middletown, was 'Thomas Jefferson may he receive from his fellow Citizens the reward of his merit,' he drank it, adding, ‘a halter.' I could fill a quire of paper with speeches of his equally violent and indecent." Mr. Granger advocated the removal of Mr. Goodrich, collector at New Haven, and Mr. Edwards recommended the appointment of Samuel Bishop in his stead. The result was that Jefferson removed Goodrich and gave the position to Bishop. The merchants of New Haven protested against the appointment of Bishop, largely on the ground that he was incapacitated by old age for the performance of the duties of the office. This protest brought a famous letter from the President on July 12, 1801, in which he defended his course in the removal of Goodrich, and concluded as follows: "It would have been to me a circumstance of great relief, had I found a moderate participation of office in the hands of the majority. I would gladly have left to time and accident to raise them to their just share. But their total exclusion calls for prompter correctives. I shall correct the procedure; but that done, disdain to follow it, shall return with joy to that state of things, where the only questions concerning a candidate shall be, is he honest? Is he capable? Is he faithful to the Constitution?" Jefferson removed a score of office holders as a rebuke to Adams. Then there followed a series of removals for what would now be termed offensive partisanship. A third series was made to provide "for some participation of the Republicans." At the end of the first half of the first term one hundred and seventy-eight out of three hundred and twenty-four important positions in the government were held by new appointees, that is about one-half of the previous incumbents

in those offices had been removed. At the end of Jefferson's second administration the entire civil service was Republican. Jefferson has sometimes been called, but unjustly so, the father of the spoils system. It is true though that he did not live up to his early protestations.

A few disconnected events of importance yet remain to be noted in connection with Jefferson's first administration. The death of Alexander Hamilton at the hands of Aaron Burr was little less than a national calamity, although Hamilton's public work seems to have been complete. Burr had been read out of the Republican party for duplicity in the election of 1801, and had inflicted himself upon the Federalists. That party had nominated him for Governor of New York in 1804. Hamilton was practising law in New York City at the time, and took up the cudgel against Burr. The bitter personal attacks of Hamilton stung Burr to desperation, and he challenged his opponent to combat. Hamilton, with characteristic personal bravery, but with a false sense of honor, accepted the challenge. The two men met at Weehawken on the 11th of July, 1804, and Hamilton fell, mortally wounded, and on the following day, at the early age of forty-seven the ablest of the brilliant group of constitutional statesmen died.

The election of 1800-1801 had revealed some serious defects in the machinery of the Electoral College. North Carolina and New York protested, in memorials to Congress, against the method of electoral voting, and suggested that "in all future elections of President and Vice-President of the United States, the persons voted for shall be particularly designated, by declaring which is voted for as President and which as Vice-President." The substance of this suggestion was embodied in an amendment-the twelfthproposed on December 12, 1803, and declared in force September 25, 1804. The Federalists, as a party, opposed the amendment.

When the time for the election of 1804 drew near, there was no question in regard to its results. The people were

overwhelmingly in favor of Jefferson and the Republicans. The Federalists still numbered in their ranks many able men, but the party had practically degenerated into a faction. Vice-president Burr was ostracized and a congressional caucus nominated Jefferson and George Clinton, of New York. The Federalists, without a caucus apparently, agreed to support General Charles Cotesworth Pinckney and Rufus King. Jefferson and Clinton received one hundred and sixty-two electoral votes, while Pinckney and King received only fourteen. The Republicans carried every State with the exception of Connecticut and Delaware. Even Massachusetts, the home of John Adams and the stronghold of Federalism, was found in the Republican column.

Looking back upon the first administration of Jefferson from the vantage point of the present, it is clear that no radical changes were effected by the inauguration of the Republican party. The changes which have been discussed in this chapter were not fundamental. The general principles upon which the government was based remained unchanged. Gallatin's policy in the treasury department was not a departure from that of Hamilton. Jefferson saw that State sovereignty was one thing in theory but quite another in practice. In fact, the great fundamental constructive work of the Federalists endured. There was, it is true, much appearance of change. But the change was in externals rather than in essentials. That Jeffersonian republican simplicity which had been much lauded and ridiculed was not an essential principle in the government. Mr. Merry, the English minister, complained that he was introduced to the President while the latter stood "in slippers down at the heels, and both pantaloons, coat, and under-clothes indicative of utter slovenliness and indifference to appearances, and in a state of negligence actually studied." Mr. Merry concluded that his king, George III., had been insulted by this lack of ceremony. No vital principle was involved, however, as this republican simplicity was largely affectation and theatrical display.