To judge by the size of the nation's capital, President Thomas Jefferson would have little trouble delivering on his promise to keep the federal government “rigorously frugal & simple.” The grand plans for Washington, D.C., stood unfinished, federal buildings dilapidated. Even in the heart of the capital, government remained relatively invisible. Including the President, only 153 federal employees worked in Washington when Jefferson assumed office. Over the next thirty years, the number barely doubled, despite a 150 percent increase in the nation's population.

Illustrating just why advocates of the Constitution had fought for the exclusive right to levy imposts, Jefferson asked rhetorically, “What farmer, what mechanic, what laborer ever sees a taxgatherer of the United States?” Under Jefferson, Congress eliminated the direct tax and slashed most excise taxes, collecting 90 percent of federal revenues through customs duties. Now that they were in office, and especially because they presided over a surplus, Republicans were less eager to make taxpayers “feel” the pain of financing the General Government. Republicans refused to recharter the Bank of the United States when its twenty year charter expired in 1811. Federally funded internal improvements also came in for their share of opposition; critics charged that such projects threatened to empower the government, burden the taxpayer, redistribute wealth from one locale to another, and become self-perpetuating instruments of distant control over independent citizens.

Given the localistic nature of American society and the growing importance of individual choice at the end of the eighteenth century, what would bind the nation together? Because Jefferson embraced both localism and individual rights, it is worth examining his views on these matters.