The truth was that the two men were radically different, and never could have been sympathetic.  Washington was strong, direct, masculine, and at times fierce in anger.  Jefferson was adroit, subtle, and feminine in his sensitiveness.  Washington was essentially a fighting man, tamed by a stern self-control from the recklessness of his early days, but always a fighter.  Jefferson was a lover of peace, given to quiet, hating quarrels and bloodshed, and at times timid in dealing with public questions.  Washington was deliberate and conservative, after the fashion of his race.  Jefferson was quick, impressionable, and always fascinated by new notions, even if they were somewhat fantastic.  A thoroughly liberal and open-minded man, Washington never turned a deaf ear to any new suggestion, whether it was a public policy or a mechanical invention, but to all alike he gave careful consideration before he adopted them.  To Jefferson, on the other hand, mere novelty had a peculiar charm, and he jumped at any device, either to govern a state or improve a plough, provided that it had the flavor of ingenuity.  The two men might easily have thought the same concerning the republic, but they started from opposite poles, and no full communion of thought and feeling was possible between them.  That Washington chose fitly from purely public and outside considerations can not be questioned, but he made a mistake when he put next to himself a man for whom he did not have the personal regard and sympathy which he felt for his other advisers.  The necessary result finally came, after many troubles in the cabinet, in dislike and distrust, if not positive alienation.

Looking at the cabinet, however, as it stood in the beginning, we can only admire the wisdom of the selection and the high abilities which were thus brought together for the administration and construction of a great national government.  It has always been the fashion to speak of this first cabinet as made up without reference to party, but the idea is a mistaken one from any point of view.  Washington himself gave it color, for he felt very rightly that he was the choice of the whole people and not of a party.  He wished to rise above party, and in fact to have no party, but a devotion of all to the good of the country.  The time came when he sorrowed for and censured party bitterness and party strife, but it is to be observed that the party feeling which he most deplored was that which grew up against his own policies and his own administration.  The fact was that Washington, who rose above party more than any other statesman in our history, was nevertheless, like most men of strong will and robust mind, and like all great political leaders, a party man, as we shall have occasion to see further on.  It is true that his cabinet contained the chiefs and founders of two great schools of political thought, which have ever since divided the country; but when these parties were once fairly developed, the cabinet became a scene