It is better to be lucky than smart when it comes to sustainability. Jefferson's legacy resides in the indirectness of this approach. His goal was to avoid both dissolution and subjection from foreign powers, but he was also wary of consolidating too much power in the executive office. Jefferson was thinking more along the lines of functional integrity, although his notion of functional integrity was especially attentive to the economic and political conflicts that can rip a society apart. Jefferson himself, whatever his shortcomings, was the greatest champion of liberty this America has ever had. One thing is for sure, he was fully conversant in the philosophical language of rights as well as its applicability to problems of justice and liberty.