After a vicious campaign and a polarizing election that was not resolved until February 17, 1801, after thirty-six ballots in the House of Representatives, President Thomas Jefferson delivered a soothing and unifying message in his first inaugural address. Jefferson uttered these now-classic lines: “But every difference of opinion, is not a difference of principle. We have called, by different names, brethren of the same principle. We are all republicans, we are all federalists.”