“The true theory of our Constitution is surely the wisest and best …. When all government … shall be drawn to Washington as the centre of all power, it will render powerless the checks provided of one government on another, and wilt become as … oppressive as the government from which we separated.
“What has destroyed the liberty and the rights of man in every government which has ever existed under the sun? The generalizing and concentrating all cares and powers into one body …. The way to have good and safe government is not to trust it all to one, but to divide it among the many … It is by dividing and sub-dividing these republics, from the great national one down … that all will be done for the best.”
Thomas Jefferson
Courtesy of the National Center for Constitutional Studies (www.nccs.net)