Why did Jefferson pledge to limit the size of the federal government?

As a political philosopher, Jefferson was a man of the Enlightenment and knew many intellectual leaders in Britain and France. He idealized the small independent landowner as an example of republican virtues, he distrusted cities and financiers, he favored the rights of states and a strictly limited federal government.

After returning from France, Jefferson was the first Secretary of State of George Washington (1790-1793). Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton began discussing national fiscal policy, especially the financing of war debts. Hamilton believed that the debts should be equally shared by all and Jefferson that each state should be responsible for its own debt (Virginia had not accumulated much debt during the Revolution). In the fight against the federalists, Jefferson came to equate Hamilton and the rest of his followers and conservatives with the monarchists, who threatened to undermine republicanism.

Jefferson and James Madison founded and directed the Democratic-Republican Party. He worked with Madison and his campaign manager John J. Beckley to build a national network of Republican allies that would allow them to fight federalists across the country.