then devolved on the House of Representatives, which after a long and bitter struggle elected Jefferson President; Burr then became Vice President.  To prevent such a contest ever arising again, the twelfth amendment was added to the Constitution.  This provides for a separate ballot for Vice President.  March 4, 1801, Jefferson, escorted by the militia of Georgetown and Alexandria, walked from his lodgings to the Senate chamber and took the oath of office.{1} He and his party had been placed in power in order to make certain reforms, and this, when Congress met in the winter of 1801, they began to do.

[Footnote 1:  For a fine description of Jefferson’s personality, read Henry Adams’s History of the United States, Vol.  I., pp. 185-191.  As to the story of Jefferson riding alone to the Capitol and tying his horse to the fence, see Adams’s History, Vol.  I, pp. 196-199; McMaster’s History, Vol.  II., pp. 533-534.]

%242.  The Annual Message.%—­While Washington and Adams were presidents, it was their custom when Congress met each year to go in state to the House of Representatives, and in the presence of the House and Senate read a speech.  The two branches of Congress would then separate and appoint committees to answer the President’s speech, and when the answers were ready, each would march through the streets to the President’s house, where the Vice President or the Speaker would read the answer to the President.  When Congress met in 1801, Jefferson dropped this custom and sent a written message to both houses—­a practice which every President since that time has followed.

%243.  Republican Reforms.%—­True to their promises, the Republicans now proceeded to repeal the hated laws of the Federalists.  They sold all the ships of the navy except thirteen, they ordered prosecutions under the Sedition law to be stopped, they repealed all the internal taxes laid by the Federalists, they cut down the army to 2500 men, and reduced the expenses of government to $3,700,000 per year—­a sum which would not now pay the cost of running the government for three days.  As the annual revenue collected at the customhouses, the post office, and from the sale of land was $10,800,000, the treasury had some $7,000,000 of surplus each year.  This was used to pay the national debt, which fell from $88,000,000 in 1801 to $45,000,000 in 1812, and this in spite of the purchase of Louisiana.

[Illustration:  Thomas Jefferson]

%244.  The Purchase of Louisiana.%—­When France was driven out of America, it will be remembered, she gave to Spain all of Louisiana west of the Mississippi River, together with a large tract on the east bank, at the river’s mouth.  Spain then owned Louisiana till 1800, when by a secret treaty she gave the province back to France.[1]

[Footnote 1:  Adams’s History of the United States, Vol.  I., pp. 352-376.]