state of
things when the only questions concerning a candidate shall be, Is he
honest? Is he capable? Is he faithful to the Constitution?"

The ascendency of Jefferson and of the Republican party produced a great
change in the government and in national feeling, but it was a change the
most important part of which was intangible, and is therefore hard to
describe. It was such a change as takes place in the career of an
individual, when he shakes off some controlling force, and sets up in life
for himself. The common people felt an independence, a pride, an elan,
which sent a thrill of vigor through every department of industry and
adventure.

The simplicity of the forms which President Jefferson adopted were a
symbol to the national imagination of the change which had taken place. He
gave up the royal custom of levees; he stopped the celebration of the
President's birthday; he substituted a written message for the speech to
Congress delivered in person at the Capitol, and the reply by Congress,
delivered in person at the White House. The President's residence ceased
to be called the Palace. He cut down the army and navy. He introduced
economy in all the departments of the government, and paid off
thirty-three millions of the national debt. He procured the abolition of
internal taxes and the repeal of the bankruptcy law--two measures which
greatly decreased his own patronage, and which called forth John
Randolph's encomium long afterward: "I have never seen but one
administration which seriously and in good faith was disposed to give up
its patronage, and was willing to go farther than Congress or even the
people themselves ... desired; and that was the first administration of
Thomas Jefferson."

The two most important measures of the first administration were, however,
the repression of the Barbary pirates and the acquisition of Louisiana.
Mr. Jefferson's ineffectual efforts, while he was minister to France, to
put down by force Mediterranean piracy have already been rehearsed. During
Mr. Adams's term, two million dollars were expended in bribing the
bucaneers. One item in the account was as follows, "A frigate to carry
thirty-six guns for the Dey of Algiers;" and this frigate went crammed
with a hundred thousand dollars' worth of powder, lead, timber, rope,
canvas, and other means of piracy. One hundred and twenty-two captives
came home in that year, 1796, of whom ten had been held in slavery for
eleven years.

Je