Although neither partisans nor people were in such dangers as imagined by the Federalists, the National Government might have been seriously impaired by Jefferson and his followers, if necessity had not been most fortunately on the other side. The contest was very unequal, as well for Jefferson as for his successors who struggled conscientiously but vainly against natural laws. Jefferson was misjudged by those who pronounced him opposed to all union. He was always in favour of a limited union—an impossible union as it proved—with the unexpressed powers retained by the States. "The states," said he, "can best govern our home concerns and the general government our foreign ones." In later years he could remember but one instance of control vested in the Federal over the State authorities in a matter purely domestic, and that was the metallic tenders. Nor could he be said to be opposed to the Federalists as a whole, since he never recognised the party, but simply a few of its leaders. The latter were for the moment misleading the people. He expected in time to win all back except "the Coryphæi," or leaders, whom he pronounced incurables. One of the first unpleasant revelations to Jefferson as President was the fact that a sufficient number of the people to constitute a party would persist in remaining under the influence of Hamilton and his fellows in several of the States.
The man who depends thus upon the people and appeals to them as his monitor must risk the charge of demagogism. Every action differing from custom will be considered a bid for popular applause. "Jeffersonian simplicity" has been ridiculed as a masquerade for a purpose. Yet it was a protest against Old World imitation. Never was a salutation made or an address presented to Washington or Adams at an opening of Congress that Jefferson did not see in it a warning of imminent monarchy. He applauded the democratic firmness, called "stubbornness" by the Federalists, of Matthew Lyon, the only member of the House of Representatives who steadfastly refused to march in procession to the residence of President Adams in order to present to him the accustomed complimentary address and to partake of his refreshments. Clearly it was the duty of a President of the people to abolish these borrowed forms of royalty. When elected Vice-President, Jefferson requested that he might be notified by mail instead of by a messenger. No notification of his election to the Presidency was necessary since he was presiding over the Senate when elected by the House.
The embryonic city of Washington, surrounded by dense woods, was the scene of Jefferson's inauguration, and it afforded little for the ceremonies except democratic simplicity. It was announced in advance that no "white wands" would be carried, in the British style, at this inauguration. Republican papers had predicted that
"Philosoph's reign the world will bless,
Join'd with religion's simpler dress.
Truth in homely garb shall shine,
On every state, in every clime."
The inauguration plans provided only a salute from the company of Alexandria riflemen who paraded before the lodgings of the President-elect, an escort of citizens and members of Congress to the Senate wing of the unfinished Capitol, and an inconsiderable illumination at night. At a later time, in an effort to magnify Jeffersonian simplicity, the story was invented that the President-elect rode unattended to Capitol hill and tied his horse to a tree near the spring.
Since Jefferson had been deprived of his wife by death many years before, the social problem was greatly simplified. Hospitable to extravagance in his home, as President he must reduce his entertainment to the simplicity becoming a republic. He soon formulated as part of his social program: "Levees are done away with. The first communication to the next Congress will be, like all subsequent ones, by message, to which no answer will be expected." In thus trimming away the useless ceremonials which had so far attended the beginning of each session of Congress, obviously copied, as previously said, from the opening of a session of Parliament, Jefferson was contributing to American individuality and common sense.
The task of restoring the Union to the form the fathers had meant for it and revoking the prerogatives unconstitutionally given to it was uppermost in Jefferson's mind. The bank had been chartered for twenty years and was beyond reach at present. The Sedition law and the Alien Friends act had expired by limitation before Jefferson came in. The Alien Enemies act was harmless because it rested entirely with the President for execution and was valid only during a foreign war; since it might be useful later it was allowed to remain on the statute book. But the odious excise, the stamp taxes, and carriage licenses could be repealed, the probationary period for naturalisation could be reduced to the former limit, work on the great war-ships could be stopped, the provisional army allowed to disband, and Hamilton and other generals cut off from the public treasury. The vast appropriations for the army and navy and the coast defences could be reduced, and the expense of the ornamental consular service cut down. As rapidly as possible, Congress carried out these reform suggestions of the new President. The Federalists deplored his penny-wise economy, especially when fifteen ships, which had cost the Government nearly a million dollars, were sold for one-fourth that amount.
The work of reform did not stop here. Two branches of the National Government had been brought back to democratic principles by the will of the people. But the third branch, the Judiciary, remained in the control of the "monarchists." Jefferson first did justice, as he conceived it, to Lyon, the only prisoner remaining convicted under the Sedition law. No doubt some of the Federal judges had been overzealous in securing the conviction of offenders under this law. Holding life tenure under the Constitution, they could be reached only by impeachment. This remedy was attempted in order to punish Judge Chase, an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, who had shown partiality, it was claimed, in the trial of Fries and Callender five years before. The requisite two-thirds of the Senate did not vote him guilty, and this method of curbing the Judiciary failed. "Impeachment is not even a scarecrow," admitted the disappointed President. The enemy had retired into the stronghold of the Judiciary, as he said, to be fed from the treasury, and from thence to beat down Republicanism. "By a fraudulent use of the Constitution," he explained, "which has made judges irremovable, they have multiplied useless judges merely to strengthen their phalanx."
In this indictment, Jefferson referred to the act of the closing days of the Federalists, whereby the number of Federal courts had been increased to twenty-seven. It had been done by creating six circuit courts, with judges, marshals, and attorneys, instead of requiring the district judges and Supreme Court justices to make up these courts as had been done under the Judiciary Act of 1789. The excuse for the creation of these medium courts was that too much labour had been imposed upon the judges and justices by the old method. But the Republicans believed it had been done to make places for a large number of irremovable Federalist office-holders. By another act, a circuit court, with three judges, was created for the District of Columbia, with an elaborate system of justices' courts and justices of the peace. To fill the large number of places thus created, the pen of John Adams had been kept busy up to the last hour of his administration. Hence the "midnight appointments," as they were commonly known. Some of the district judges were advanced to the new circuit judgeships, and their places filled by the district attorneys. These were "nominated for promotion," as the message to the Senate termed it.
Not only would this presumably hostile force be in Jefferson's camp, but their salaries would seriously interfere with his plans for retrenchment. The Constitution distinctly provided that "judges both of the supreme and inferior courts shall hold offices during good behavior." But before the first session of Congress under his administration was ended, Jefferson wrote that they had "lopped off a parasite limb, planted by our predecessors on the judiciary body for party purposes." How had it been done? By passing a new judiciary act, which abolished the whole system of circuit courts, with their judges and minor officials, and substituted the old practice of requiring the Supreme and district judges to perform the labours of the circuit courts. No life tenure would hold for an office which did not exist. The anathemas of the "promoted" officials, thus fallen between stools, added to the pleasure of the Jeffersonians. The names of twenty-two unfortunates, whom the Senate failed to find time to ratify in the closing hours, were recalled by Jefferson, under the caption, "Nominated but not appointed."