existing opposition, and gave it the name "Republican Party," implying
that its purpose was to resist the rise of monarchy and the growth of
royal prerogative in the system of government which was introduced by the
adoption of the Constitution. It is clear enough now that the implication
was mere calumny; the notion that Washington was either aiming at monarchy
or was conniving at it through ignorance was a grotesque travesty of the
shameful situation that actually existed; but fictions, pretenses,
slanders, and calumnies that would never have been allowed utterance if
the Administration and Congress had stood face to face now had opportunity
to spread and infect public opinion. Hence the tone of extreme rage that
dishonors the political contention of the period and the malice that
stains the correspondence of the faction chiefs.

Although a distinct party opposition appeared and assumed a name during
the Second Congress, it disavowed as yet any opposition to Washington
and represented its actual attempts to thwart the measures of the
Administration as efforts to counteract Washington's evil advisers. The
old constitutional tradition that the king can do no wrong, which still
lingered in American politics, tended to an analogous elevation of the
presidential office above the field of party strife, while leaving the
President's Cabinet advisers fully exposed to it, just as in the case of
the ministers of the Crown in England. Allowance must be made for the
effect of this tradition when judgment is passed on the political
activities of the period. Considered with regard to present standards of
political behavior, the course of Jefferson in fomenting opposition to the
Administration of which he was a part wears the appearance of despicable
intrigue. There was nothing mean or low about it, however, in the opinion
of himself and his friends, and even his enemies would have allowed it to
be within the rules of the game. Jefferson did his best to defeat in
Congress measures adopted by Washington on the advice of Hamilton, and he