rson was ridiculed as a
_sans-culotte_ and red-legged Democrat. Nor was Washington spared. He
was charged with an assumption of royal airs, with political hypocrisy,
and even with being a public defaulter; a charge which no one dared to
father, and which was instantly shown to be false and malicious. It was
made by Bache in "The Aurora," a contemptible sheet after the fashion of
"L'Ami du Peuple," Marat's Paris organ.

Such was the temper of the people when the House of Representatives met
on December 7, 1795. The speaker, Dayton, was strongly anti-British in
feeling. He was a family connection of Burr, but there is no reason to
suppose that he was under the personal influence of that adroit and
unscrupulous partisan. On the 8th President Washington, according to his
custom, addressed both houses of Congress. This day for the first time
the gallery was thrown open to the public. When the reply of the Senate
came up for consideration, the purpose of the Republicans was at once
manifest. They would not consent to the approbation it expressed of the
conduct of the administration. They would not admit that the causes of
external discord had been extinguished "on terms consistent with our
national honor and safety," or indeed extinguished at all, and they
would not acknowledge that the efforts of the President to establish the
peace, freedom, and prosperity of the country had been "enlightened and
firm." Nevertheless the address was agreed to by a vote of 14 to 8.

In the House a resolution was moved that a respectful address ought to
be presented. The opposition immediately declared itself. Objection was
made to an address, and in its stead the appointment of a committee to
wait personally on the President was moved. The covert intent was
apparent through the thin veil of expediency, but the Republicans as a
body were unwilling to go this length in discourtesy, and did not
support the motion. Only eighteen members voted for it. Messrs. Madison,
Sedgwick, and Sitgreaves, the committee to report an address, brought in
a draft on the 14th which was ordered to be printed for the use of the
members. The next day the work of dissection was begun by an objection
to the words "probably unequaled spectacle of national happiness"
applied to the country, and the words "undiminished confidence" applied
to the President. The words "probably unequaled" were stricken out
without decided opposition by a vote of forty-three to thirty-nine.