These changes and proposals were met with wide skepticism for many employees thought Fox's Quaker notions of economy and simplicity would only reduce their hours of work. Yet another cause of friction centered about his move to stop or reduce some popular practices such as breaks for whiskey and grog which many shipyards tolerated. Perhaps though in the end it was Fox's ardent Federalism which gradually lost him the support of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. Madison's new secretary of Navy, Paul Hamilton, probably on Tingey's recommendation "unceremoniously and perhaps unjustly" dismissed Fox. Hamilton again probably at Tingey's bidding directed that all of Fox's white apprentices be kept on the yard rolls if possible and the blacks dismissed . In December 1809 prior to leaving the District of Columbia for Ohio, Fox manumitted Edwin Jones, William Oakley and prospectively manumitted Betsey Doynes.