Yet in spite of his dislike for Marshall, Jefferson was careful to observe the amenities. When Marshall returned from a mission to France in 1797, unsuccessful as the mission had been, he was given an ovation on his arrival in Philadelphia, then the seat of government, and a public dinner was arranged in his honor. Jefferson was in Philadelphia at the time and promptly called on Marshall. Not finding him at home he left a note expressing disappointment at not seeing him and regret that a previous engagement would prevent his attending the dinner. Marshall, not to be outdone in courtesy, sat down next day and penned a reply stating that “J. Marshall begs leave to accompany his respectful compliments to Mr. Jefferson with assurance of the regret he feels at being absent when Mr. Jefferson did him the honor to call on him. J. Marshall is extremely sensible of the obliging expression contained in the polite billet of yesterday.” These sentiments were hardly in keeping with “J. Marshall’s” true feelings. For once he was not exercising that candor which his friends considered his strongest attribute. For if Jefferson distrusted Marshall, that distrust was in no measure greater than Marshall’s distrust of Jefferson. When in the presidential election of 1800 Jefferson and Burr received an equal number of electoral votes and the election was thrown into the House of Representatives, Hamilton, displaying his usual animosity toward Burr, appealed to Marshall, then a member of the House from Virginia, to support Jefferson. To Hamilton’s appeal Marshall replied on New Year’s Day, 1801: “To Mr. Jefferson whose political character is better known to me than that of Mr. Burr, I have felt insuperable objections. His foreign prejudices seem to me totally to unfit him for the chief magistracy of the nation which cannot indulge those prejudices without sustaining deep and permanent injury. Your representation of Mr. Burr, with whom I am totally unacquainted, shows that from him still greater danger than even from Mr. Jefferson may be apprehended. But I can take no part in the business. I cannot bring myself to aid Mr. Jefferson.” Here then was Jefferson, afraid that Marshall and his followers would turn the nation’s government into an hereditary monarchy; and Marshall equally afraid that Jefferson and his party, unless restrained, would soon reduce the nation to anarchy. To such absurd extremes can political partisanship drive otherwise highly intelligent men.