I consider Jefferson to be an expert on nothing though he was a good cabinet maker. Governments grow because of many factors but none can hold sway unless the People allow them.
Our fedgov was TINY until the Civil War when its growth became both natural and necessary. It shrank after the War but was still bigger. This has happened after every war though the Cold War caused it to maintain more of its growth than after other conflicts.
Governments grow just from the sheer increase in complexity of societies thus the government acceptable when the nearest neighbor was 20 miles away is not powerful or large enough when they are 20 feet away. It is an inescapeable fact of life.
They also grow when more rights are claimed by citizens. Thus, paradoxically the more rights we claim the larger the government must become to protect those rights.
Opposition to Free Trade is largely centered in the Left. You will see those claiming to be Right opposing it but they use the Concepts, slogans and rhetoric of the Left in making their arguments. Every contra argument on this thread validates this point.
I believe there is something of a paradox here, in that societies achieve complexity in direct proportion to the amount of freedom that they enjoy, the stricter the boundaries set by government in which a society must operate, the less complex and less successful it is likely to be. My opinion.
However, if government must regulate certain aspects of a complex society, as it must, the more local the authority doing the regulating, the better.
"This has happened after every war"
Regarding WWII, this was probably exaggerated by the fact that FDR had strong ambitions of increasing and moving leftward the powers of central government.
"Thus, paradoxically the more rights we claim the larger the government must become to protect those rights."
No arguing that point, when people think, as they now do, of their "rights" as services or remunerations that government can provide for them, then government must grow.