According to Tucker and Hendrickson, Jefferson believed America "was the bearer of a new diplomacy, founded on the confidence of a free and virtuous people, that would secure ends based on the natural and universal rights of man, by means that escaped war and its corruptions."[citation needed] Jefferson sought a radical break from the traditional European emphasis on "reason of state" (which could justify any action) and the traditional priority of foreign policy and the needs of the ruling family over the needs of the people.
Jefferson envisaged America becoming the world's great "empire of liberty"--that is, the model for democracy and republicanism.
On departing the presidency in 1809, he described America as:
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"Trusted with the destinies of this solitary republic of the world, the only monument of human rights, and the sole depository of the sacred fire of freedom and self-government, from hence it is to be lighted up in other regions of the earth, if other regions of the earth shall ever become susceptible of its benign influence."
In the decades after the Revolutionary War, he considered Britain as an enemy to the United States, because it was the base for a successful aristocracy and antipathy to democracy, while France, at least in the early stages of the French Revolution, appeared to be developing a solution to Europe's malaise.
He said, "The liberty of the whole world was depending on the issue of the contest."
He never wanted war.
The paradox was that as Britain was much more powerful and was the leading trading partner of the U.S., Jefferson's economic warfare against resulted in hurting the American economy.
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