e same principle. We are
all Republicans, we are all Federalists."

Notwithstanding the reassurance of these words, the atmosphere both
of official Washington and of the country at large was electric with
dangerous currents--dangerous especially to judges--and Jefferson
was far too well known as an adept in the manipulation of political
lightning to admit of much confidence that he would fail to turn these
forces against his enemy when the opportune moment should arrive.
The national courts were regarded with more distrust by the mass of
Republicans than any other part of the hated system created by the once
dominant Federalists. The reasons why this was so have already been
indicated, but the most potent reason in 1801, because it was still
freshest in mind, was the domineering part which the national judges
had played in the enforcement of the Sedition Act. The terms of this
illiberal measure made, and were meant to make, criticism of the party
in power dangerous. The judges--Federalists to a man and bred, moreover,
in a tradition which ill-distinguished the office of judge from that of
prosecutor-felt little call to mitigate the lot of those who fell within
the toils of the law under this Act. A shining mark for the Republican
enemies of the Judiciary was Justice Samuel Chase of the Supreme Court.
It had fallen to Chase's lot to preside successively at the trial
of Thomas Cooper for sedition, at the second trial of John Fries for
treason, and at the trial of James Thompson Callender at Richmond for
sedition. On each of the two latter occasions the defendant's counsel,
charging "oppressive conduct" on the part of the presiding judge, had
thrown up their briefs and rushed from the court room. In 1800 there
were few Republicans who did not regard Chase as "the bloody Jeffreys of
America."

Local conditions also frequently accentuated the prevailing prejudice
against the Judiciary. The people of Kentucky, afraid that their badly
tangled land titles were to be passed upon by the new Federal Courts,
were already insisting, when Jefferson took office, that the Act of
the 13th of February creating these courts be repealed. In Maryland
extensive and radical alterations of the judicial system of the State
were pending. In Pennsylvania the situation was even more serious, for
though the judges of the higher courts of that commonwealth were usually
men of ability, education, and character, the inferior magistrates were
frequen