%241. The Election of Thomas Jefferson.%--The year 1800 was a presidential year, and though no formal nomination was made, a caucus of Republican leaders selected as candidates Thomas Jefferson for President, and Aaron Burr for Vice President. A caucus or meeting of Federalist leaders selected John Adams and C. C. Pinckney as their candidates. When the returns were all in, it appeared that Jefferson had received seventy-three votes, Burr seventy-three votes, Adams sixty-five votes, Pinckney sixty-four votes. The Constitution provided that the man who received the highest number of electoral votes, if the choice of the majority of the electors, should be President. But as Jefferson and Burr had each seventy-three, neither had the highest, and neither was President. The duty of electing a President 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.