The divisions of opinion were on home affairs.

The Republican party was the first opposition which had reached power since the formation of the government.

The Federalists had not hesitated to confine the patronage of the executive to men of their own way of thinking.

The Republicans had attacked that principle.

There were men even in the ranks of Jefferson's administration who scouted the idea that the President of the United States could become "the President of a party." But practice and principle are not always in accord, even in administrations of sentimental purity, and the pressure for office was as great in 1800 as it has ever since been on the arrival of a new party to power.