XIV. “AFFECTATION OF SIMPLICITY.” Vice-President Adams now put the question and the postponement was carried; immediately after which Maclay offered a resolution for a conference between the two Houses. It was carried and the committee appointed. But now Ellsworth drew up another resolution in which the differences between the two Houses were to be kept out of sight and to proceed _de novo_ on a title for the President. “I did not enter into the debate,” records Maclay, “but expressed my fear that the House of Representatives would be irritated and would not meet us on that ground. And, as if they meant to provoke the other House, they insisted that the minute of rejection should go down with the appointment of the committee. Little good can come of it thus circumstanced, more especially as the old committee were reappointed,” namely, Ellsworth, Johnson and Lee. Monday, May 11, on motion of Lee, the subject of titles was postponed to the following day, but under date of May 12 Maclay records: “The business of considering the title, which was laid on the table, was postponed to see what would be the result of the conference of the Joint Committee on that subject.” Adams’s solicitude for titles was evident, for when the Senate met, May 13, he reminded the members that the report for the President’s title lay on the table. The Senate was informed by Lee that the committee on titles had met in the Senate chamber but were interrupted by the assembling of that body and had agreed to meet on the following morning. Again, on May 14, the Vice-President “reminded us of the title report” but the committee was out on it. In a short time, however, they reported that the Lower House “had adhered in the strictest manner to their former resolution,” which was against the granting of titles of any kind. This, indeed, was a heavy blow for the advocates of titles. Catching at the last straw, Lee now moved that the Senate _de novo committee’s_ report in favor of titles be taken from the table and entered on the files of the House. The spirit of his motion was that attention should be paid to the usages of civilized nations in order to keep up a proper respect to the President; that “affectation of simplicity would be injurious”; that the Senate had decided in favor of titles but, in deference to the expressed feelings of the Lower House, the Senate, “for the present,” should address the President without title. XV. “YOUR HIGHNESS OF THE SENATE.”