Jefferson maintained a long correspondence with Kosciuszko and called him “as pure a son of liberty, as I have ever known.”17 During the war for independence from England, Kosciuszko had contributed his skills as a military engineer to the American cause and then had led Polish peasants in a failed attempt against invading armies that ultimately resulted in the partitioning of Poland. Of course most viewers would not have been aware of the history connected to this garment; nevertheless, it lends an unconventional bearing to an American portrait in which most gentlemen never ventured far beyond the fashionable coat, waistcoat, and appropriate linen. In a broader comparison, a European ruler would have been draped with ermine; Jefferson sits wrapped in wolfskin.

Jefferson never responded directly to observations on his appearance. In fact, he was well into retirement when he began to reflect over his life in public service and set down from notes and memory his views on the early years of the republic. He maintained that “the contests of that day were contests of principle, between the advocates of republican, and those of kingly government.” He believed that if he and his political allies had not confronted the “monarchists,” “Our government would have been, even at this early day, a very different thing from what the successful issue of those efforts have made it.”18 Jefferson had not been alone in the concern that the new nation might swing back to the more familiar forms of governance that relied upon the strength and control of a king with the support of an aristocracy. Certainly there were those outspoken in the belief that without a powerful executive, the United States could never stand either economically or politically against Britain and Europe. With such issues in debate, clothing might seem a trivial consideration and a strange way of underscoring an ideology, but by visually denying a pretense of wealth or elitism, Jefferson attempted to support his belief in democratic principles of meritocracy. To some this denial seemed false, and they agreed with Augustus John Foster that Jefferson was playing a game. Despite criticism, however, Jefferson was obviously pleased to report to Kosciuszko one year after taking office that “republicanism has recovered its ascendancy.”19

Jefferson never totally gave up the proper and egalitarian black suit. As mentioned, he was dressed in black for his second inauguration and reported in black for many of the dinner parties he held for members of Congress. yet the tales of his dressing down as president lingered. Even after Minister Anthony Merry had been recalled and reassigned to other diplomatic duties, he continued to tell the story of his American reception and the slovenly dressed president who sat and tossed a “down at the heel slipper” into the air and caught it on his toe.20