=285. Financial Affairs and War with the Barbary States.=—One of the first matters that occupied the new administration was the reduction of taxes and the decrease of the public debt, which had grown rapidly in consequence of the preparations for war with France. The army was greatly reduced,[118] and much less was spent on the navy—a branch of the service which had grown under Adams, but with which Jefferson, as an agriculturist, had little sympathy. He endeavored to economize in other ways, especially by doing away with internal taxes and with the unnecessary judges added by the Federalists, but he naturally found that the demands of a growing country had to be met. Still, the next ten years were distinctly a period of retrenchment, in spite of the cost of Louisiana and of the small war waged against the piratical Barbary States (1801–1806). These “pests of Christendom” had become too impudent in their demands for tribute in return for promised immunity of American shipping in the Mediterranean, and they had to be brought to their senses by the bombardment of Tripoli. The war furnished training to our sailors, and gave Lieutenant Stephen Decatur[119] great fame for his exploit in burning one of our frigates, so that she could be of no use to the enemy.[120] =286. The Louisiana Purchase.=—This purchase was the most important feature of either of Jefferson’s administrations. The colony of Louisiana, which comprised a vast stretch of territory west of the Mississippi, had, as we have seen, been ceded by France to Spain in 1763 (§ 115). In 1800 Spain ceded it back to France. As the latter country was far more powerful and dangerous than the former, and as the ambitious Napoleon then ruled France, great alarm was felt in America at the prospect of having a rival nation grow up across the Mississippi. Affairs were made still more serious by the denial of the right of depositing their goods at the port of New Orleans to the inhabitants of our Western country. These citizens were thus unable to transfer their merchandise from river boats to ocean vessels, and were cut off from profitable markets. Even the pacific Jefferson took the alarm,[121] and James Monroe of Virginia was dispatched to France to try to buy a strip of territory including New Orleans. Because of the impending war between Great Britain and France, and the consequent necessity of defending Louisiana, and for other reasons, Napoleon just before Monroe’s arrival made the regular American Minister, R. R. Livingston, an offer to sell the whole Louisiana region. His offer was accepted, and the price was set at fifteen million dollars, less certain claims against the French. [Illustration: THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE]