The seat of government was moved, in the autumn of 1800, to the newly-risen town of Washington; and society for a while found itself compelled to face difficulties innumerable in its struggle for European customs as its established methods. Not only was there much hardship, incidental to the newness of the capital, to be undergone, but the inauguration of Thomas Jefferson, in the spring of 1801 as the third president, brought about some retrogression in the onward march of the social system. Jefferson affected a love for the extremes of "democratic simplicity," and he carried this to the verge of boorishness in some respects, giving mortal offence at times to foreign diplomats and native statesmen by his disregard for the amenities of courtly custom. Himself a polished gentleman, as a politician, Jefferson was something of the demagogue in such matters as social customs when these seemed of national import, and he was determined that the White House should in no way resemble the court of any European monarch, believing that thus he best pleased the people of the United States. So the first aspect of the White House was that of ruggedness, since its occupation by the testy John Adams and his family was of duration too short to be noted; and even Mrs. Adams, in her acceptance of her husband's theories, which, however, were not so radical, in practice at least, as those of his successor, was accused of hanging her drying clothes in the East Room of the presidential mansion. The Jefferson era at the White House was lacking not only in social amenities but in the presence of female influence to soften its roughnesses. The daughters of the president, Mrs. Randolph and Mrs. Eppes, were seldom with him during his eight years of tenancy, though both their husbands were members of Congress during that period. The two ladies were together at the White House for only a short visit, and individually they came rarely to visit their father and never took up their residence with him. Mrs. Randolph had a large family which needed attention, and Mrs. Eppes was for long in delicate health, and finally died in 1803, thereby causing her father the greatest grief of his life. Both were accomplished and handsome women, and they might, by their presence at the centre of government, have removed some of the stigma of discourtesy, rather than mere uncourtliness, that lay upon it. Jefferson, in his love for extremes, abolished all presidential receptions, except on New Year's Day and the Fourth of July, and the weekly levees which had been such a pleasant feature heretofore were sternly repressed as "undemocratic." So that, in its highest expressions, society had a parlous time during the two Jeffersonian administrations.