Thomas Jefferson and the British Ambassador
Anthony Merry was the son of an English wine merchant who became his nation's first minister (ambassador) to the United States. Her served from 1803 to 1806 during the administration of Thomas Jefferson. Despite the need to address tensions between the two nations, when Merry arrived in the United States, he was shown no hospitality by President Thomas Jefferson, who greeted him in casual clothes and was inclined to show hostility towards Britain through Merry. In the American Presidents Series biography of Jefferson, written by Joyce Appleby, the author gives this interesting account of Merry's arrival in Washington (at page 48):
The grand climax to Jefferson's campaign to bring simplicity to the federal government came in 1803 with the arrival of Anthony Merry, Great Britain's first minister of the United States. At the time, Washington was largely rural, despite the many constriction sites. The Merrys contributed to the urbanizing effort by devising an interesting residence remodeled from two existing houses. Accompanied by a parade of white servants carrying an endless succession of crates, boxes and trunks, the Merrys made a grand entrance. Their arrival alerted the denizens of the capital city that their social avatars had arrived.
On November 28, James Madison, in his capacity as Secretary of State, brought the new ambassador to the White House for his formal presentation to the President. Merry wore his formal diplomatic regalia: a coat trimmed in black velvet and gold braid, a plumed hat, handsomely buckled shoes and that European mark of high status, a sword. The President, disconcertingly, was nowhere to be found when they arrived. Minutes elapsed while Madison searched for him through the downstairs rooms of the White House. When Jefferson finally emerged from his study through a side door, his attire horrified Merry. The President, he later reported, was not merely in a state of undress, but "actually standing in slippers down at the heels," his "pantaloons, coat and under-clothes indicative of utter slovenliness and indifference to appearances in a state of negligence actually studied." We have to give Merry credit for that last observation: "in a state of negligence actually studied" as he discerned, the President's outfit had been well thought out.
Merry, who had established diplomatic procedures on his side, protested the treatment vigorously. And there were further breaches of etiquette to aggravate the wound, including Jefferson's failure to honor prevailing forms and lead Mrs. Merry in to a state dinner. Madison, speaking for the new administration, pointedly told Merry that he could no more demand social distinctions in the United States than an American emissary could ask for equality with royals at the Court of St. James'. Never mollified, the Merrys finally refused to accept invitations to White House functions altogether.
The author goes on to point out that this wasn't simply a case of Jefferson's "anglophobia", but rather "it was entirely in keeping with the informality he had cultivated from the outset."
The grand climax to Jefferson's campaign to bring simplicity to the federal government came in 1803 with the arrival of Anthony Merry, Great Britain's first minister of the United States. At the time, Washington was largely rural, despite the many constriction sites. The Merrys contributed to the urbanizing effort by devising an interesting residence remodeled from two existing houses. Accompanied by a parade of white servants carrying an endless succession of crates, boxes and trunks, the Merrys made a grand entrance. Their arrival alerted the denizens of the capital city that their social avatars had arrived.
On November 28, James Madison, in his capacity as Secretary of State, brought the new ambassador to the White House for his formal presentation to the President. Merry wore his formal diplomatic regalia: a coat trimmed in black velvet and gold braid, a plumed hat, handsomely buckled shoes and that European mark of high status, a sword. The President, disconcertingly, was nowhere to be found when they arrived. Minutes elapsed while Madison searched for him through the downstairs rooms of the White House. When Jefferson finally emerged from his study through a side door, his attire horrified Merry. The President, he later reported, was not merely in a state of undress, but "actually standing in slippers down at the heels," his "pantaloons, coat and under-clothes indicative of utter slovenliness and indifference to appearances in a state of negligence actually studied." We have to give Merry credit for that last observation: "in a state of negligence actually studied" as he discerned, the President's outfit had been well thought out.
Merry, who had established diplomatic procedures on his side, protested the treatment vigorously. And there were further breaches of etiquette to aggravate the wound, including Jefferson's failure to honor prevailing forms and lead Mrs. Merry in to a state dinner. Madison, speaking for the new administration, pointedly told Merry that he could no more demand social distinctions in the United States than an American emissary could ask for equality with royals at the Court of St. James'. Never mollified, the Merrys finally refused to accept invitations to White House functions altogether.
The author goes on to point out that this wasn't simply a case of Jefferson's "anglophobia", but rather "it was entirely in keeping with the informality he had cultivated from the outset."