It is only natural that state receptions should be governed by more arbitrary rules than those which direct purely social intercourse. It must be remembered that when an official reception is held, it is always an official duty that is being performed. The state forms and ceremonies which have obtained in America have varied from time to time according to the usages of the day and the taste of the national hostess. They have, at times, been further modified by periods of national calamity, war and the death of immediate relatives, but through all this variation and modification there has run the golden thread of democratic simplicity so dear to the national heart. The period of Washington’s administration must be regarded as a time of transition. Nor is it to be wondered at that much formality and stateliness marked the dispensation of national hospitality in the beginning of the nation’s development. The term “colonial” is to-day associated in our minds with a courtly, stately conventionality peculiarly its own. Men and women of that time, who either at first hand or through their mothers and fathers, had received their education in courtesy, grace and proper behavior from the customs of England, could not easily shake off that second nature and no doubt fretted over the meagre means of gratifying their wishes; but as soon as they were cut off by their own desire from this influence and became self-dependent, that pure simplicity nurtured by individual worth became evident. It is not surprising that in the earliest period the Executive Mansion was a place of stately and continuous reception and that Martha Washington is famous for the dignity, grace and splendor of her social reign: but, on the other hand, the simplicity of Jefferson’s time has passed into a proverb, and was such as to excite comment even abroad. The youth, gaiety and impetuous brilliancy of “Dolly Madison” contributed largely to the breaking down of much of the severity and conventionality which preceded her time.