Thomas Jefferson called his election a revolution in 1800. The revolution he looked for though was to restore the liberty and tranquility he believed the US had enjoyed in former times. Under the Federalists was a $ 10 million growth of the national debt alerted Jefferson and Albert Gallatin, the secretary of treasury. They rebutted Alex Hamilton argument that debt strengthened the government, because just paying interest on debt would require taxes. So they closed some embassies and reduced the army to save money. Jefferson also declared war to the Barbary pirates, because he thought it would be cheaper than paying bribery to free the seamen. He was right. Gallatin calculated that by holding the line of state expenditures the debt could be paid of in 16 years.
The conflicts over the judiciary were the reason Jefferson's hopes of conciliation with moderate Federalists could not be achieved. Judiciary Act in 1801, which probable author was the arch-federalist John Marshall, created 16 new federal judgeships, all of which J. Adams had filled with Federalists in last minutes "midnight appointments". Jefferson's opponents saw the court system as battering ram to attack Republicanism. In the Marbury v. Madison in 1803, Marshall, who was Chief Justice, and the court ruled that the Congress had exceeded its constitutional authority with writing the Judiciary Act in 1789, what was the 1st time the court overruled an act of the congress. That was without doubt an important step on the way to judicial review. The Republicans had taken the offense against the judiciary and impeached two Federalist judges. Their names were John Pickering & Sam Chase. Pickering was an easy call and was quickly removed from office, but for Chase the Senate almost failed to convict him, in part because moderate Republicans had begun to doubt that impeachment was the cure for judicial partisanship. Jefferson objected neither to judicial reviews nor to an appointment judiciary; he merely challenged Federalist use of judicial power for political goals.
