Thomas Jefferson on the Role of the Federal Government

Let the national government be entrusted with the defense of the nation, and its foreign and federal relations; the State governments with the civil rights, laws, police, and administration of what concerns the State generally; the counties with the local concerns of the counties, and each ward (township) direct the interests within itself. It is by dividing and subdividing these republics, from the great national one down through all its subordinations, until it ends in the administration of every man’s farm by himself; by placing under every one what his own eye may superintend, that all will be done for the best. What has destroyed liberty and the rights of man in every government which has ever existed under the sun? The generalizing and concentrating of all cares powers into one body, no matter whether of the autocrats of Russia or France, or of the aristocrats of a Venetian senate.
-Thomas Jefferson

As quoted in the 5000 Year Leap by W. Cleon Skousen