Ohio American Institutes for Research (AIR) US History Practice Exam

The main idea is that Jeffersonians believed the government should be small in scope, with most authority resting in the states, and they promoted an economy built on farming and rural virtue. They favored a strict reading of the Constitution, arguing that the federal government should exercise only powers explicitly granted to it. This perspective led them to oppose a strong national bank, rapid urban-industrial growth, and broad federal funding for internal improvements, since those moves would concentrate power in a central authority and favor urban elites over farmers. By elevating the farmer as the foundation of political virtue and independence, they argued that local, agrarian life would sustain the republic better than centralized power or industrial specialization. Other options describe a stronger federal government and an economy oriented toward industry and urban finance, which contradicts the Jeffersonian emphasis on limits to federal power and an agrarian-based republic.