Throughout his history of Jefferson's presidency, Henry Adams traced two seemingly contradictory themes. On the one hand, Jefferson made no attempt to lessen the influence or limit the power of the executive branch and was therefore at least as Federalist as his two predecessors, but, on the other, Jefferson's presidency quickened the country's march toward democracy. But Adams failed to make the connection between Jefferson's expansion of presidential power and the democratic reasoning behind it. Like Jefferson's contemporaries who, by way of a partisan twist on an error in translation, believed that Jefferson's criticism of the “forms” in Washington's government (levees, birthdays, and apparel) was meant to recommend a revolution in the “form” of government, Adams did not appreciate that Jefferson meant to empower the presidency by democratizing it. What Adams and generations of his followers have missed is that Jefferson attempted to resolve the tension between executive power and democracy by implementing a particular understanding of executive power.

To be sure, Jefferson was too good a politician, and too enthralled with experimentation, to be rigid in his views. His tenure as governor persuaded him to revise his earlier prohibition of giving the former prerogatives of the king to the governor, to reconsider the merits of an executive council and to find new ways to reign in the legislative power. Experience under the Articles of Confederation confirmed for him that a separate executive was necessary for foreign and domestic affairs.