Mr. Jefferson formed the governmental machinery in strict accordance with this principle.  As many measures are necessary for one portion of a community and not for another, he insisted that local affairs should be placed in the hands of local authorities.  The integrity of his system depends not only upon the limitation of the governing power, in a general sense, but as well upon the division and dispersion of it.

The principal exception which Jefferson made was in respect of education.  But, according to his view, this can hardly be regarded as an exception.  The general safety depends so directly upon that recognition of mutual rights which is not to be found except among intelligent men, that he advised the establishment, not only of common schools, but likewise of colleges and schools of Art.

To those who objected, that this system would limit the action and decrease the splendor of a nation, Jefferson replied, that its effects were quite the reverse.  In proportion as a government assumes the duties which ought to be performed by the citizen, it acts as a check upon individual and national development.  Under a despotism, culture must be confined to a few, nor can there be much variety of effort and production.  Under a government which is confined to its proper field, the talents of each man may be freely used, and he will not be forced into relations for which he is unsuited.  The absurd prejudice, that public employment is the most honorable, will pass away.  The man of letters and the man of science, the poet, the artist, and the inventor, the financier, the navigator, the merchant, every one who performs beneficial service and displays great qualities, will be rewarded.  Every one who is conscious that he possesses such qualities will be stimulated to strive for that reward.  This universal action will give birth to all the things which adorn a state.  Social disturbances will excite investigation, and evils which governments have never been able to reach may be removed.  Competition will make the accumulation of large estates difficult, property will be equalized, but no motive to effort destroyed.  Science will be encouraged.  Every day will add to the number of those contrivances which facilitate labor, increase production, lessen distance, and raise man from the degradation of an existence wholly occupied with providing for his physical wants.  Under these elastic laws, religion, philanthropy, art, learning, the social amenities, the domestic influences, all humanizing agents, will have opportunity and work harmoniously for the advancement of the race.

It will be seen that Mr. Jefferson’s political system was that which, in the language of the modern schools, is called individual theory.  It has been said, that it is based upon too favorable an estimate of human character, and that he obtained it from the French philosophers.