How did Thomas Jefferson's ideas about the president's house should look reflect his ideas about the presidency?

The new British minister to the United States was outraged. Within a few weeks of Minister Anthony Merry’s arrival in Washington, he was reporting to his foreign office in London what he perceived as breaches of diplomatic protocol, and topping his list of grievances were complaints regarding President Thomas Jefferson’s appearance. Merry had accompanied Secretary of State James Madison to the President’s House on November 29, 1803, to present his credentials to Jefferson. As Merry understood this to be an official occasion, he arrived in full diplomatic uniform, blue dress coat with gold braid, white breeches and white silk stockings, a plumed hat and dress sword. When President Jefferson shuffled into the room in "slippers down at the heels" and coat, breeches, shirt, and woolen stockings that to Merry displayed "utter slovenliness," he felt that not only had he been deliberately insulted but that the insult extended to his sovereign and his country. 1

In the continued retelling of his initial interview with the president, Merry found eager listeners, especially among the Federalist opposition party, and so the story grew. One New England Federalist had Jefferson greeting Merry in dressing gown, slippers, and a nightcap-well, perhaps not the nightcap, he conceded, but still he was sure that the British minister was not impressed with this display of "Democratic Majesty."2

Other Federalists were quick to share their own impressions. Senator William Plumer of New Hampshire, when making his first call upon the president, assumed that it was a "servant" who entered the room in an old brown coat and clothing that appeared soiled, woolen hose, and slippers without heels. Upon introduction he apparently covered his dismay but quickly concluded that certainly he dressed better than the first officer of the land. 3