After the adjournment of the Senate that day the Vice-President drew Maclay aside and explained that he was for an efficient government, that he had the greatest respect for the President; and gave his ideas on “checks to government and the balances of power.” Maclay protested that he “would yield to no person in respect to General Washington,” that he was not wanting in respect to Adams himself; that his wishes for an efficient government were as high as any man’s and begged “him to believe that I did myself great violence when I opposed him in the chair and nothing but a sense of duty could force me to it.” Commenting on this day’s debate Maclay records: “Strange, indeed, that in that very country [America] where the flame of freedom had been kindled, an attempt should be made to introduce these absurdities and humiliating distinctions which the hand of reason, aided by our example was prostrating in the heart of Europe. I, however, will endeavor (as I have hitherto done) to use the resentment of the Representatives to defeat Mr. Adams and others on the subject of titles. The pompous and lordly distinctions which the Senate have manifested a disposition to establish between the two Houses have nettled the Representatives and this business of titles may be considered as a part of the same tune. While we are debating on titles I will, through the Speaker, Mr. Muhlenberg and other friends, get the idea suggested of answering the President’s address without any title, in contempt of our deliberations, which still continue on that subject. This, once effected, will confound them [the Senators] completely and establish a precedent they will not dare to violate.” On Saturday, May 2, the day following the debate on “His Most Gracious Speech,” the Senate met and several of the members congratulated Maclay on the stand he had taken. Langdon “shook hands very heartily with me,” but some of the other New England Senators were “shy.” Senator William Paterson of New Jersey “passed censure on the conduct of the Vice-President” and “hinted as if some of the Senate would have taken notice of the ‘gracious’ affair if I had not. I told him I was no courtier and had no occasion to trim, but said it was a most disagreeable thing to contend with the Chair and I had alone held that disagreeable post more than once.” VII. POLITICS AND TITLES. On Friday, May 8, on motion of Ellsworth, the report of the Joint Committee on Titles was taken up by the Senate and the great battle was fairly under way. Two days before this Maclay noted that “the title selected from all the potentates of the earth for our President was to have been taken from Poland, viz., ‘Elective Majesty.’ What a royal escape!”