New-York tribune. [volume], November 01, 1912, Page 6, Image 6

About New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924

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ONE WELSHMAN
Address Delivered by Ambassador
Whitelaw Reid at the Opening Ses
sion of the University of Wales.
Abcrystwith, Wales, Oet. .''.1.?The |
?pentng eession of the I'niveralty of
Wales was celebrated here to-day.
rhia even ing the prlncipal sp'-cker waa
vThitelaw Reld. the American Ambas- :
?ador. Hc was frcfjucntly applauded
ln the couree of his address. Mr. Reid,
who took for hla gttbject "One Welsh
tnan," sald:
I must begin by expresslng my warm
apprcclatlon of this wel< otnc, as well.
ee of the high honor you have con
ferred in aummonlng me to thle oldest
of Weish unlveroltiea, to follow thej
Jong Mne of entinent scholars and pub-,
licuu wbb have dignif.ed theae aca
?emte ocCaalone by their eervice. How?
ever unworthy your present ?peaker
mav feel hlmaolf for a place ln that
line. he has Imaglned that at any rate
he mlght be thought to ehow reepe
ggf this large and telect audlence an i
1 for the dlgnity of the occaalon by an
effort to estimaw a great tranaatlnnti C
representatlve of your own blood. and
to recall to your minds some details tn (
his career.
Compansoni are rerely agreeabie and .
often deloelve. The general outllnea
of the career referred to have been fa- j
mlllar to you and to all the world for
a century. Blnce you are not known
to have aaalgnad to this man the ranKj
be?ide the famoue WeUhmen who have |
lllumlnated your long and brllllant do- .
mestlc hlatory which we should have
thought aaaerved. it may b
you know your hlatory far better than
we do. or because you have not rated ,
his achievements so high is we do
You obeerva I do nol altow for exag
garatlon in our oarn aatlaaate.-wa rara-;
,v do! But I no not think 1 have been
undar any tcmptation to eaaggerate
his merlte, and I certalnly atn not biind
to his fauits.
Founder of a Political Party.
He waa the founder nnd nfeiong
leader nf political party I profoundly
distrusted. and ln my small way ha%e
erent mv lh> ln af*oalng. In apite of
that I am about to renture on a rash
and I faar nngracloua taek. I am go-|
ing tobeapeab your frlendly attentlon
to a few reaeono for thlnhlng that aome
wnrk of this tranaatlantlc offahoot of
the Waleh atock does u'most as much
honor to the Welah land and race as
that of any of your great oona through
your hlatory. i am even I
nut
*nough to thlnk he has made the world
h!p debtor as much as did "?welyn.
ablert and mogt aucceaaf ul of all l
prtncee; or aa much as that famoua
I ruier and rebel, Owen Olendower. who
1 flve hundred years ago hold his court
near this town.
The peaceful laurels of your Ameri?
can Walahman mav laat even longer
than thoae beetowed by your gratefuii
cot.r.trv on Ortfflth ap Rhys. for v|C- -
tori,-s ?ver Norman and Plamlah
troop- v' cannol pretend to clalm,
for him the eulogy earned later by the
Bev Grifflth Jonee, rector of Lland
dowror-that nearly one-thlrd of tho
whole pepulatlon Of his state had been
taught to read in his schools. And yet,
even in flelds akin to that. he did two
things that I well know insure Welsh
ratpect. As a young leglalator he suc
cet-ded (agalnat the rullng and fashlon
aMe classes) ln making tbe alave-trade
unlawful in his state; and aa a weary
oid man, after having climbed to tho
very top of tbe ladder of his natlons
ejeatness. having spent forty years ln
continuoua publlc eervice, under ha
rassing reaponaibilltlea. having shaken
the worid. changed its geography and
largely remouidt-d its government, he
gave his dfclinlng years to the organl
zation of n state unlverslty; and as
his dylng wlsh asked that that should
be one of the three acts of his life sln
gled out for record on his tombatone!
Mv observattons have not led me to
think Wales paitlCUlarly backward,
any more than my own country. In an*
. proprlating and ralslng to at least their
true level the high records >f her sons
-when they are dead and gone. Y.-t
in the recitals of great thlngU done by
the Welsh blood I have not often seen
this man's work credited to the off
sprlng of the gallant little prlncipality.
Stil!. it was exactly in tbe fleld that be
long'a peculiarly to this land of moun
tains and of llberty.
??or old aat Fraedom on the helghta,
The thunders breakiiiK at her feet,
\l).v. her snook the starry llgbta,
She heard the torrents meet
Possibly Wclsh writers may have
fceen restrained by the doubt hlnted by
the man himself as to his actual Mne- j
age. He began hi.* autobiography by
aaylng that lt was a "tradltton" ln hl? j
father's famlly that his ancestor rame
from Wales and from the mountaln ol
Snowdon. But the stress of polltlcs. .
as we ahall see, had thrown him intc
an ultra-democratlc pose as t > any an- j
cestors at all. The P'-se beeame more j
necessary to his politics because of the j
hatred engendercd in that arlstocratlc, i
cavalier colony by hla early auccess in ;
certain radlcal and levelling meaaurea; j
and lt was made more real ??> his own
consclousness that after .Ul he had
been by origin a plain farmer on the
frontier. and had rlsen out ->f his class
to a rank among thi landcd gentry.
Thla mlght explaln the rather superior
air with whkh the future Democratlc
party leader dismissed the whole sub
Ject ln tbe remark: T.et every one as
cribe to these pedigrees the l'alth and
inerit hc ehootes." But he was not
able, with all hla democratlc pose, to
leave it at that A llttle later we nnd
him carefully recording the fact that
he had found his family name in old
Welah law papera?juat ah. later on,
when he heard that his wlfes family
once had a coat of arms, he hasicn>d
to have it hunted up and bought for j
*-hlin. and thenceforward dlsplayed it
liberally a' hia home and on his
grounda.
A Preciae Recorder.
In estimatitig this shadow of a shade
of doubt which he ehose to laava on
tha BtatemenU <>f his own fathar and
grandfather aa to his origin, we must
rameraber that thla ruan was also. from
boyhood to extrame old age, one of the
moal laborloua and preciae, moat
minute and even meticuloua of record
ers. He was not able In merc pcrsonal
aecounts of pocket nioney, covering
yeara and avi.y Inalgnlflcant outiav. lo
?al down one item. or evcn to carry
it forward to next year'a balance, al
either 8d. or 2d.. if ln fact it had been
2^jd. Naturally sucli a man was not
able to accept any family testlmony or
anythlng axcept a legal record, daly
aealed and wKnaaaed, for any anceatoi
farther back than hla grandfather?es
paclally alnca ha was tha known aoti
of an lll-aducatad and hard laboring
ploneer, who roae al i^ st to ba a land
aurveyor; and alnca ha was, htmeelf,
often found Jeerlng at the vanlty of
havlng grandfather^.
Now i vanture to think that on
equally aubatantlal grounds wa might
commit the folly of questioning the
Walah blood of Howel Dda the Jood,
grandson of RoderUk the Great or ot
that Prince of Uyneed, who reigned
ovcr thla happy land forty-four years
as an "independent vaaaal" Of the Klnc
of Bngland.
i ahall Indnlge in no auch oatraga.
I shall raquaat you to assumc that this
man'a fathar and grandfather knew
where their family cnme from when It
entered the new colony, only two or
three generations carller. And so I
am here tn ask you to Include among
Welah contrlbutlona to, the larger
movemanta of tha world tha name nn 1
world-wide fame of Tbomaa Jefferson,
nuthor of the Declaratlon of Inde
pendence.
Do I naed raaaon for this bayond his
unchallenged Walah origin.' Who wl'l
name the achievement by any other
man of Walah blood or of Brltlah blo ?1
which has more largely mfluenced the
world for good than that cmplre-shak
Ing, contlnent-ahaking document, tiiat
?aved Great Brltaln from herself: tha!
aaved Amerlca for herself, and de
veloped ln place of the two and a hnlf
mlllions of that day a nntlon of nlnety
three rallUona on tha conttnent, whlle
lt protects and guldes islands of ten
or tweive mllHons more ln every zone
and on every sea; tha! shook down the
most dbatlnate of monarchtoa, turncd
it into a republic, with ? reganeratad
people, now the most prospcrous gov
ernment Ftanco ever had, nnd the most
Btable and endurlng it ever had since
Loula XIV?not excepting thnt of eltber
Napoleon,
The Declaration of Independence.
Yet the*o are merely some of the
external rcsults' more or less distim tly
tracenble to the momentous statement
he addressed to the clvlllzed world on
the Fourth of July, 177t>. I do not dweh
upon any Of them or nrgue them. Still
less do I insist upon the Engllsh atyle,
lucld, convinclng and ol a stately dig
nity (unsurpasped, I venture to think,
by any offlcial paper In your tliojsand
years of Parllamentary history). ln
which he clothed one of the most ph;lo
aophlc and unaaaallable and yet most
rcvolutlonary accounts of the ^rlgln of
governnient slnce Plato. "We hold
thaaa trutbl to be self-cvident, that all
men are andowad by thelr Creutor with
cartaln Inallenahle rights, that among
these mtc life, liberty and the pursuit
of happir.ess, that to aecurc these
rlght.s governments are lnstltuted
nmong men, derlvtng thelr JuBt powers
from the conscnt of the govamad."
There was the lnward and apirttua!
meanlng ol this whole goopal of your
Amerkan Welshman?the Declaration
to which he brought the people of his
country nnd to Whlcfa he drew tho
considerate Judgment of ail others.
His real work was the dlfl'uslon of
an unaccuatomad ldea of the origin of
governnient and of the acOBO of hu
man rights?rights held not as Kng
llshmen or Amerlcans or Krenchnu'i,
but slmply as men. That is the origin
of the spirltual unrest whlcli hroke out
in Rurope at the close of the eighteenth
century. and now pervades all ciasses
everywherc?an unrest not to be
cjuieted until It tritimphs. But lt never
meant and Jeffemon never meant, the
madness which the agitator^ of the
present day flnd in it. lt never meant
wlthdrawing thr mainsprlng of the
world's progress. free indlvidual inltlr.
tlve. On the eontrary, lt meant the
wldest extcnslon of free Indtvtdual
Inltlatlve to every human being capable
of it, limlted only by respect for the
equal rights ot others. Mr. Jefferson
wrote to II. L'Hommande fPBTlB, 17871:
"The pollcy of the Anierlcan govrrn
mer.t is to leave thelr citizens free.
nelther restralnlng nor alding them in
their pursuitt- " And to M. de Meunier,
la 1T1?.": "1 am a wurm zealot for thr
attalnment and enjoyment by all man
kind of as much liberty ns each may
exerclse. wlthout injury to the equal
liberty of his feilow citizens "
Old Controveraies Idle.
Nelther doaa It apatt to n.e ln the
leaat worth while to revive the old con
trovertles as to the orlglnality of the
Dei 1 iration. or as to what thi:ikers flrst
OOncatved its proposltlons. Whether
mere platitude, as some said. or wlld
apcculation by an irresponslble :heo
rist, aa olhera aald, or profound and
phtloaopnlcal conaidaratlon of the sub
jc< ta of araataat human oonoarn, as in
th. and it eaflM t" be gencrally consid
arad, the famous Declaration eonslsted
af prlnciples nrst so stated. arranged,
COllatad and phrased by practlcally the
iola PCI of Thomas Jefferson.
Still, forty.aeven years later? his pep.
pery old colleague. John Adams. WTOl
to Pickerlng: "There is not an Idea ln
it but what ba.l been backneyed W
Congraaa for two years before The
?ubetance of it H cntained ln the
declaration of right*. and the vlolatlon
of thoae rlghta, ln the Journahi of Con?
gress in 1774. Indeed, the eaaancaoTII
la contained m a pamphlet votad ana
r.rlnted by the town of Boaton before
the Mrst Congress met. COTOI>oeed I
jamaa Otle, as i auppoae, ln one of bu
ludd lntervals. and pruned and pO -
Bmed bv Bamnal Adams." Bvon '-"?
0f virglnla wrote that it waa copled
from LcckVi Treatlae on Oovernment
Othera tracad Ita Inspiration to Roua
laau'a Contrat Boclal, or to Mon
teequleu'a Baprlt dea Lola; and othera,
wltb bettar reaaon, to Coke upon Ui
tieton. A leaa reepectable wiggeatlon
was that It was imitated from the
Bfecklenburg Declaration.
Now, Mr. Jeffereon waa choaen bx
I the Congress a member. tho member
: wltb thi largest vote. 0,1 tho committee
j for Its preparatlon. Th* other mem
bera of the committee were John
| adanva, Benjamln Pranklln. Roger
I Sherman an.l Robert Ltvlngaton. He
| was choaen by thli committee to pre
pare and preaent tbe work He did
present it. the P'opie of his conntry
did uulte and act upon lt: the world
did glve it a stnrtled and unlve.sa!
conaideraUon. That la the eeeentlal
thlng. There were four other men of
the hlgheat note on this oommlttet of
Congreea. No one of them did lt. No
one claimi to have done It Every
ehange ever made in it from Mr Jef
: feraon'a erlglnal draft 1* of record No
: oni of them is vital; though. aa John
Adama hlmeelf aald, it mlght have been
battar if nome paaaagea had been left
an they were Stlll. the dOCUment Is in
i bettar taste wlthout aome of them. The
yovng, lelf-tralned wrlter of thlrty
three had not then wholly ontgrown
! bla aophomore atyle, and he never out
I grew hl? hablt of over-etatement. But
! as it atanda it la eeeenitally hla an I
; aa aucb lt baa taken Ita pla< ? among
' tho epoch-making state papera of the
I v.-orl 1.
Tilt with John Adams.
He mlght no doubt have rei
lallent under the remark of his old
friend end co-worker of Maeeacbuei tl
But ollence was rarary hla glft?eepe
dally when hla vanity waa wounded.
B . he wrote: "The obaervatlona thal
the Declaration conUlned no new Ideas,
that it la a commonplace compllatlon,
1U aentlmenta backneyed ln C01 gi
for twi years bafore, and its ?
. 1 ntalned ln Otlss pamphlet. ?
i?. tuic. Of that i am i...t to ?
judge Otla'a pamphlet I never aaw,
and v hether I had gathered mj 1 ?
from readlng or reflectlon 1 do not
know. I know only that 1 turned to
nelther book nor pamphlet whlle wrlt
ing it. I did not coneider lt as an'.
i.art of my < harg- t.. invent new Idena
altogether and to offer no aentlmei t
bad cv.r been aapreaeed before
I will say for Mr. Adams. however, tb lt
he aupported ihe Declaration wltl
and abllity, hghtlng fearleaaly for even
,,, , . of it." It muBl be admttted that
Mr. j.-fferaon doea not appear badly ln
thla little paaaage ot arms, To day
cerUinly no hlgh-ndnded American
WOUld have had the author of the I'
IhWatlon answrr otherwlse. or WOUld
'have had bla concludlng paragraph',
[wblch walded indlaaolublj togetlwr
I the thlrteen colonles, changed from
the worda in a/htch he framed and
: algned it:
\y. therefore. the Repreeentattvea
j (lf (j. r- iti 1 Btatea of Ameri< a, ln
GeneraJ Congress asaemhjed, aPpea<
' ing t" the Bupreme Judge of tbe world
' f,,r the r.-. Htude of our Intentiona do
ln th. name, and by authorlty of the
good people of theae colonles. eolenvnly
publlali and declara, that theae unlted
colonlea are. and of right ought to be,
free and Independent atatea; that they
ai.- abaolved from all alleglame to the
British Crown. and that all Political
connectlon between them and ihe Stati
of c.rcat Hrltain ia, and oughl to be,
tntatly dlaaolved; and that as fre.- and
Independent Btatea, they have full
power t<. levy .ur. condude peace,
eontracl alliancea, establlsh commerce,
and to do all other acta and thlngl
whlch independent Btatea may of rlghl
do. And for the BUPPOli of thla Decla?
ration, with a tlrm rellance on the pn>
tectlon of Divine Providence, we mut
ually pledge aach other our llvea our
fortunes, and our sacred honour
lt requlres a profound eonvictlon to
present to this audience such remarka
concernlng this Declaration and Iti
author. Bven then it requlroa nonu
raahneas to assuu.e that they can bc
weicome, or even tolerated, if i were
ln mv firat year In ofticlal rrsldence at
this court insteau of thi eighth, I feel
surc that I should not venture upon ;t
But ; have bad loo many and too
varie<i experiencee as t.? the breadth of
Britlah political thlnking and the gen?
erous boapltallty with whlch BrHoni
regard all political OPtnton dlfferent
from their own, and partlcularly all
boneat political opinion from any
branch of their qwh race, to healtate
even at what must at lirst ajght ?? R]
llke the canonizatlon, in >>.ur oWn land
and at your own shrliu-. of one who
atruck aa powerful a blow against the
BritHh Bknplre Of that day as any man
wlthln its va^t extt-nt 01 throughoui
its long and glorlous hlstory.
Blow for British Righti.
But the biow was not against the
British people. lt waa fgf Bntlsh
rights and Brltiah freedom al home M
well aus across the seas. That vlew has
baan gO often presented by your own
Wtitera that it may now be treated as
Wldely accepted. No one has of late
put it forward more gracefully or m. re
ptrsuaslvely thati the present I.ord
President of the Councll. Lord Moriey.
This young man who wrote the
Declaration at the age of thlrty-three.
wlthout ever having been out of his
native colonles, and not much even out
of the one ln which he was born, after
a aubaequent career crowded with con
spicuoua duties and honors, and half a
j . entury later, looked back over hla
whole life and aelectcd, aa we have
aeen, the three thinga he had done by
whlch he wished to be remembered, and
whlch he wished recorded on hts tomb
stone. Two were the work of hts yotith.
the statute for Religlous Freedom ln
Virginla. and the Declaration; the third
has already baan mentioned, the pas
slon of his old age. the founding of tha
rniverfcity of Virginia.
What a Hst of undlaptrtad and ex
traordlnary achlavemanta he thua
ignorad, Pealdaa these three, he was
the author of "A Bummary View of the
Rlghta of Brltlah Amarica," aubae
quently adopted by I-Mmnnd Burfca and
publlahad bpoadcaat ln Bngland, with
? ?,. raault that the name of Thomaa
jtfferaon decorated tha llal of pro
icribed ln the Bral hiu of attalndar.
This "Siimmary View" was aftcrwanl
conaldered even more cogent and com
prehenalve than the Declaration.
AggJnal a multitude of difficulties.
-omewlint of his own maklng. he 08
curad the annexation of a tarrltorlal
emplre to tha aatlon his Declaration
had created?the state . f Lonlalana,
.u tha mouth of tha MlagJeeippt, with a
iraat extent of terrltory on tha weai
bank of that rtver, atretchlng almoat
to tha Canadlan fxonUer, and, a.- ha
believed al tha time, on the east almoat
to Florlda, Aa a mara tyro ln legtala
tlon hc aacured, agalnat ovarwheiming
aoclal preaaure, tb< aboliUon both of
entall and of primoganltura ln his
natlve colony. Ha aarvad for i year on
various dlplomatlc commlaaiona In Bu
rope, and for four years aa Mlnlater to
EPrance, during the turbulenca of the
Revolution; oonaulted not only prlvate
ly but offlclally with the revoluttonlata,
ami wenl fai beyond diplomaUt uaaga
or proprlety In manlfeatlng hts actlve
?ympathy with them; aerved twlce as
Gov rn i t" hla natlva atata once as
? u-y 0f state to Qti rge Waahlng
,?,?. .,.?,. M vice-Praaldeni of the
Unitad Bti taa and twlce ai Pr<
ii,. made greal contrlbutlona to the
plant llfa and ti tha agrtcultart of tha
ountry, and Import sd f< r tba i ? ?
Hc benefit hlgh bred cattle and other j
..,:,.?. n< iaauad tha patent |
for u,. cotton gln, and waa almoat the |
Bral t ? graap the enormoua poa
which flnally led to Ita maklng cotton
Klng.i-to the temporary mlafortune of
hire and th.- honor forevei
aplendid and i ylng worklngmen.
ti ng In rlnance, h< |
shape ln ? ir a: at< m I i one really
valuable flnaw lal contrlbutlon, I
declmal ayatem He created and led I
Democrattc party. which ruled the ?
ntry, almoat wlthoul a break. for
ovei i alf a i entury. ii flral taughl
I . mtrymen their vaal ?
and even Ita i
from tt t Northwt atern atrati h revi
in the Loulaiana purcl aaa I the yet
? important and Imperlal reglon ra
i by the Lewla and Clarki ? i
pedltion. which ?? i ' ,,ls- ,n
Ita i onceptli n, ln Ita org inlaal n. ln
eof tha men to o nd i< I lt, an i
ln its aupport
yet || v\:i.s a sure Inatlnct that led
the old man I i the brlefer record on
I . . three thlni
l hletortc acta, mm of th
... nal Ij of 'ii- Bi
all al ? ' tad. enormo
valuable. upllftlng humanlt
exeeut
? , crttldam; thal
expi ng avlctl m w.
lll.conaldered and extravagant. and
often amaalni ?? ln onalatanl and hla
?cta aa a polltlclan frequentl) fi
tandard of the P
on govemment Kavari the
a.ht.-v.m.nts i, M
a marvel oua careei for the raw-honed,
rod-headed aon of the Altx
farmer and lai r
for any man, ln any aga *et
they were. they were not needed for
hla tom ? ? ? ? >'??? ? '
thal wi ' ? ??' aura Htle to the
iratltude of poeterity; ona of them
certatnly a aura tltl< to Immorullty.
Head of Gold; Feet of Clay.
But lf tha figure I have been pi
Ing aa an honor to Wblea haa a head of
gold, lual s~ learlj II ? 111 '??? '
have had feel of clay. There la no
tyranny like thal of i greal Idea
When once honeatly entertalned
rapable and alncere man. lt poi ?
him, it obaaaaea him, and may iea-1
or drive him anwvherc Mr. Jefferaon
honeatly believed Ui 'he Inallenable
righl of all men t . llfa Hbert] and
happlneaa, that governmenta were ln
etltuted among men to secure theae,
and that they derlved their Juat powera
only from the preeenl conaent of the
governed. Ha did not .-fe that govern?
menta were Juat aa dletlnctly lnsti
tuted to praaerve order and proteel
n i, n. thelr eamlnga, as well aa their
liberty, and that prtmaiily every gov
ernment must rest upon force. Carry
Ing hla own faacinating pronoaltlqna to
thelr limit. he thought the f.rm of gov?
emment shouid provlda that th- people
couid alwaya and al once have thelr
way. aubjecl to no hlndrancea or delay
for conalderatlon. Whoever thought
thal neadad, was n<>t to be truated; ha
was no frlend to tha llberth a of the i - o
j.,, Conaequently, alr.Jefferaonloofced
coldly on tha Conatltutlon of the I'nited
Statea as B .-v-telli of IIOHi >rt.-ii . !,. | g|
in tha Inatant exaeuUon of the popular
will. and believed tha greateel dong?r
tha oountrj waa in came tt<>m tlie per
- ibi aho made thla Conatltutlon Ma I
ol them had foughl for Indcp ndi di ??
Ha never had; but ba did nol 1m ItaU
tp conatder them now eager to analave
\h~ country they had rlaked thelr llvee
to frov
in thla auaplcloua m >> 1 it was eaay
to attuch Importance to trlflea, That
the Bral Praaldant shouid go to meel
I Congreaa, on its aeatmbltng, and glv<
i in peraon th.- eonununlcatlona concern
i ing tha atata ..f th" Unlon which the
Conatltutlon requlred of him, aeemed
to Mr. jefferson a dangeroua Imltatlon
of the King of Bngland at tha opentng
of Parllamanl even though the al
leged Imltator was Oeorga Washington
That the f.rat efftcer of the natiog
shouid not be always as BCCaaatble BJ
n machanle to anybody who had or
faic led ho had buslness with him wus
another aping of monarchlcal bablta
and an evenlng reception at the Whlte
House waa a dlatlnct effort to set up a
court. Be knew uotiilng about national
tinance?any more than about hl~ OW/a;
and his dlatrust of Alexander Hamilton.
Waablngton'a Becrotary ot tbe Treaa
ury. led him Into ahaurd rev latlons of
his archalc ami parochlal notions on
tha subject. Ha thought we wara not
bound to pay any debta imurred for
the publlc service by lha generatlon
befdra na, and had no right to lncur
any d.'bts for the beneflt of the next
generatlon. Here la his own state
tnent- "We may Cdnelder each gf-nera
tlon as a distlnct nation, with a right
by the will of Ita majorlty to bind j
th msolves, but none to blnd the auc
ce< dlng generation. more than the in
babltanta of another conntry. Tba
I??riod of a generati.m ls determlned by
the laws of mortallty, varylng a little '
in different climates. out olTerlng a
general averaga of nlneteen years. At
nlneteen years. then, from the date of
a contract the majorlty of the con
tractorf are dead and their contract
with them." (Pord, X. p. 380.) Later j
on he advanced hla eatlmate of ? gen?
eration from nlneteen to thirty-four
years. but extended his ideas Of the
impoaalbllity <>f any longer blndlng
obllgation so as to include not jnerely
debte, but laws. and even the Constl
tution Itaelf! "The Conatltutlon and
the laws of their predeceaaora are ex
tlnguuhed In their natural courae with
thoae thal gave them being. Every ,
conatltutlon, then, and every laW nat
urally explrea at the emi of thirty-four;
yeara if it be enforced longer, lt Is
an ad of forco and not of right." Such I
was the dellberate and carefully writ- j
ten opinion of the Pather <t the Dcm
OCratlc party. T! e greatest city of '
th>- Atlantlc Coaat has been governed
now almost COUtlnuoualy by his fol
lowera for a century, ln spite <>r these
Jefferaonlan prlnclplea, they bave cre? .
ited m that time ;i debt conatltutlng a
fir.-i mortgage on all the property in
Nea Y.-rk City for $815,000,000. Poa
m -< d with such wild notions, he could
m.t mind bla own bualneaa ln the Cabl
net, but waa perpetually haraaalng
Washlngton with atta. ks on the tlnan- ,
i lal pollcy of the Secretary of the
<me pollcy and the
rame Becretary of whom Daniei Web
iter aald, thlrty-flve yeara later: "He
?mote the rock 'f national resourees,
and abundant itreama of revenue
guahed forth. He touched the dead
rorpee of Publlc ? redlt, and it sprang
upon it-- f< et " i if the pollcy thua
Justly euloglaed on i'u reaulti by the
-. ? ^ ?: ..f the neal genera?
tlon. Mr. Jefferaon flnally broughl him
aelf t.. write (In the Anaa, Pord, I, r
lOn "Hamilton'a flnanclal pollcy was
? .i in corruptlon and dishon
estv It had two objecta -flrat, as a
to exclude popular underatand
? I Inqulry, aecondly, as a ma
rhlne for the corruptlon <.f the legis
lature." Th-- lack of pure r' r.n>'l an
almpllcity, as he con elved lt. and the
lack of sytnpathy with these amazlng
dogmaa of Jefferaonlan I i inc< I rought
him by the cnd of the thlrd admlnls
..' any cost.
theae monarchleta In dlagulae, the sup
of Oeorge Washlngton and
john Adama, muat be turned out of
? g -. ? rnmi nt, to pre*
aerve "our threatened llberties."
Split in Wa?hinqton's Cabinet
h - the i eal of moth ? i, the p laalon
foi llberty, led to ihe flrat greit dl
ln th. Unll ?d Btatea;
to ihe llral iplll ln Washlngton'a Cab?
inet from whlcb Jefferson resign*d
after tl ? r and to an
tered war upon his old cojleague
? i john Adama, whi ae Praal
dentlal career he cul ah r* al 'he end
r.rin. <>n the one hand were
th.- men of th<> Conatltutlon, who
wiahed th- people to rule, but also
a ihed them to paj thnr debte, and
Ight to gu.ird against such
audden nd r lah actloi 1 .?' oal the
llfe of prevloua republlca. On the other
hand v. ? i ? ? he i - ilonate d< ? itaei of
llberty abova everythlng, who belleved
th.it reatralnl or delay ln th.. immedi
? . - if.. n of any haity and ill-con
?Idered poi ?? ind was unrepub
llcan .mi dangeroua, and meant an ef
fori to reetore the monarchy. Both
were alncere; both wanted the people to
rule Bul th.- one wanted th- people to
have their way througb the ordlnary
proceasee of a government they had
tnemeelt ? i I and ibaolutely con
trolied. the other wanted them to have i
it at any baxard and at once.
<?f thla la.-t party Mr Jefferson bo- j
came Inevltably th> head- drlven to lt:
by tho great Idca of llberty, of the orl-1
gtn of government and of Ita aole pur
poae, whlch poaaeaaed him. Hamllton,
whlle be llved, was as inevltably the;
leader of the other party. He was t
young man with far lesa than Mr. Jef
feraon'a advantagee, and (only oxeept
Ing the Declaration) with fully equall
achlevement Of theae rlval leadera
the Wolshman w;is born to a landed 08
late, and a place among th<> ruiing;
. laeeea ln the graateat and moat influ
entlal of the colonlea His Huguenot- \
s otttab opnonent was born to nothlng,
and made bla own way In the world :
from boyhood The one early took hla i
natural place among the legtalatora <?(
bla colony; the other, much earller won |
for himsclf his natural place as .i
leader la the Btormy political aglta
tiona of the y.-ars before the Declara?
tion, ln the great city of the CoMt.
When the war whlch the DecUnatloii
Invlted broke out, Mr. Hamllton flung'
himseif hnpetuottaly into lt, was a sol
dler at elghtaen, a captaln of artuiery
in actlve eervice ln the New Jerai v
eampalgn at nlneteen, prlvnte Becre?
tary to the Commander-ln-Chlef at
twenty. leader of iita cetnmand In the
aaaault on Cornwallla'g tirst redOubt at
Yorktown at twenty-four. Mr. Jeffer?
son never entered the army at all. At
the sarne age at whlch one was follow
ing Waahlngton in the New Jaffaay
eampalgn, the other was placldly pur
eulng IiIh coiiegiate itudlea al Wlllkun
aml Maty. At the age at whlch the
one was awe] mg tumultuoua popular
meetlnga ln New York, in all the ex
cltementi pracedlng the outbreak of
war, the other wus a favorite student
in the offlce of one of the best lawyers
of his state and waa Just dlscoverlng
that be could not speak at all, that hla
only weanon was the pen. This, it
must be confesaed, ha used relentlesa
ly, and with great temporary effect.
For hla permanent reputatlon It would
bo better If threo-fourtha of what
he wrote had never been preserved.
At thirty-eight tho one hud com
pleted a wonderful career ln oamps,
ln Conatltutlon maklng and ln the
t'ahlnet, and was retlring to enter
upon private llfe in the most exueting
of the profeat-lons and to conquer hla
place aa a great lawyer, lnferlor to no
other tu that mgtion of lawyers. At
1-m\
the age of thirty-eight the othsr had
behlnd him a wonderful record, too. |
1 as Burgese of Vlrginia. member of the
Colonlal Convention and of the Ccntl
nental Congress, author of the Dec?
laration of Independence and twlpa
Governor of Virginia. After bareV
nine years in private life fall he ever j
had slnee boyhood) Hamllton fell ln*
an unprovoked duel with a polltical
opponent at the age of forty-seven.
At forty-seven Jefferson had left the
Goveroorship of hla natlve state ln
some dlscredit from his lack of execu
tlve abillty, had been twlce ? member
Of tlre Congress at Annapolis. had ?
spent flve years in diplomati' service ;
abroad, four of them as Mlnlster to
France. and had been Secretary of |
Stat<?. Before him there still lay ser
vice for one term aa Vice-President of
the United States, for two terms as
President. and then after nearly forty
years' ofhVeholding, there yet lay
seventeen years spent in retirement,
and In lnees?=ant political exhortatlon.
Still the record made by the one before.
he was forty contrasts not unfavorably
with the record left by the other at
elghty.
A Philosophic Thinker.
Mr. Jefferson was not a man of
genlus. We have ?een that h? was not
an orator, not a soldier. not ,i good Ex
acutlve, least of all a well-balanced |
statesman. But he was a pliiloaopblc
thinker, or dreamer, and yet with aj
wonderfully practb-al gift for readlng
the tendanclaa of the populace. and for
puttlng them tatn narauaalve and state
ly language. Constantly he did this so
as to command polltical success; once
he did it ao that its consequences have
encircled the globe and the world will
remember him forever. He araa at
onca a phlloaophar and a partlsan. But
his philosophy was sornetimea ill-hal
ineed and lll-conaldered; his partisan
Bhtp was alwaya adroit and carefully
eonalderad, generally auccessful and
aometlmaa naefuL
Hla other accnmpUehnienta were va
rli '.. It was John Adarns who de
scrlbed how he was welcomM to the
ContlnenUl CongTean, "as he brought
with him a r.-putation for Uteraturtr,
acience and a happy talent for compo
Bltkm." It waa whlaparad about that
"in addltlon to Latln and Greek. he
underatood Prencn, Italian and Span
lab, was learntng Oerman, and Intended
to karn Oaellc lf he could get the
booka from Bcotland, In ordet to reau
Oaalan (whom he conaMarad the great
est of poets), ln the origmal. Tho
drollery of his deelra to atudy these
orlgtaauf of Oaalan is heightened by
his advice ln a letter to a nephaw, to
pay DO attentlot, to college laCturee OO
moral phUoaophy. and to atudy the
wrltlnga of Laurence sterne, as form
ing the beet course of morallty that
ever was wrltten. Bealdea ha w>uld
ealculate an acllpae, aurvay an eetate.
tle an artery, plan an editlce, try a
caae, break a horse, dance a minuet
and P?*y th0 vioiin." The lrtSt wafl ln"
dead a favorlta purault He hlmaelf
has left it on record that for twalva
years of his life he played the violin
for three hours every day?a devotloo
to mualc you wlll parhapa think not
unworthy of hla Walah blood.
Not Altogether Admirabla,
I began by asking you to consider a
tew reaaona why some work of his ga\e
aa much credlt to the Welah atock aa
anythlng done by any other man of
the i lood. 'But I did not commi i
as a uniformly aound polltical thinker,
or as an altogether admirabla man.
in fact, aa a poUttoal opponent he was
at 'imes ungeneroua and underhanded.
Even hla doae friend. James Ifndlaon,
was conatralned to apologlze for his
frequent eatravagance and li
tency. He wroU: "AUowanea otight to
;?. made for a habit in Mr. Jefferson. as
ln all Othere of great genlus. of ex
preasing ln atrong and round terms
imi reaalona of the moment." (Randall.
l. paga 188 ? A f,'u' axamplaa may.
show the urgent need of this alkVWance,
Knd at tha aame time bring hla real
charaeter and its UmltaUons Into
clearer rellef. They will also show the
absurd extravagance to which, in his
polltical daya, he babitually reeorted,
as the surest means of lmpresslng the
less tntelligont voters.
He regarded Blackstone's .Commen
tarlea and Hume's History of Kngland
aa pernlcious. "They have made To
ries," he said. "of ali Kngland. and
tre' maklng Tortee ol thoae young
Amerlcans whose natlve feelings of in
iependence do not place them above
the wily sophlstrles of a Hume or a
Blacketone. Theae two books havr
done more towards the suppression of
the llbertlea of man than all the mlll
lon of man ln arms of Bonaparte, and
the mlllions of human llves with the
Bacrlflca of which he wlll atand loaded
before the Judgment seat of his Maker "
A modern Sens.uional newspaper
wrlter COUld hardly have put it
atronger.
Under the sting of newspaper attack
I this extreme advocate of popular rights
proposed the uppointment of govern
; ment Cenaora for the press, and WTOte
ftO Washington: "No government OOght
j to be Wlthout censors. Where the press
I Is free no one ever wlll be." To Mr.
j Maury he descrlbed the press as "that
I flrst of all human oontiivances for gen
erating war." Yet to John Adams he
i wrote: "The llght ifrom prlntlng) has
dawned on the middllng CkuaBM only or
. the men ln Europe. Tho kiugs and the
rabble, of equal lgnorance, have not yet
'received Its ray's; but while printlng
Is preserved. lt can no more recede than
I the sun return on Ita course." Yet
? agaln, on February 4th, lMb\ he wrote
! to James Monroe, thanklng him for
1 private letters, and saying: "From
forty years experlence of the wretched
I guesswork of the newapapera of what
| ia not done In open dayllght, and of
thelr falsehood even as to that, I raplv
think them worth reading, and almost
never worth notlce."
Some Centradictiona.
No man made more phrases about
the absolute rlght of every man to gov
ern hlmself; but in the constitutlon
which he wrote for Virginia he re
qulred a landed property qualifleatton
for voters, a quarter of an acre ln
towna, or twenty-nve acrea ln the
country. He pralsed a conatltutlon of
Spaln, "which after a centain epoch
disfranchlsea every citizen who cannot
read and wrlte." To a Frenchman. tha
Abbe Arnond, he wrote: "The people
are not qualifled to leglslate. With ua
therefore they only choose the legl*?
lators." To Lafayette he wrote: "A
full measure of llberty la not now per
hapa to be cxpected by your natlon, nor
an I confldent they are prepared to
preaerve it. More than a generatlon
vlll be requisite, under the applleation
of. reasonable laws, favoring the prog
raM of know ledge in the great tnasa of
the. people. and their habltuatlon to an
mdenendent securlty of perso.t and
proptrty, before they will bo cupable of
eatimatlng the value of freedom and
the necessity of a sacred adherence to
the pryidpiee an which it rests for
preeorvktlon. inst^ad of that llbeny
which Ukes root and growth ln the
progreas of rea?on, if recovered by nure
force or accldent, it becomes with an
unprenareu p*'?ple a tyranny atlll, of
the many, the few, or the one." And In
ourtoua contrast with hia political de
?cendanta, who now wlsh to have ihe
decislona of the highest courts re
viewed or even reversed at popular
ekCtione, he sald bluntly: "The people
are not qualitied to judgc questlona of
law." To. If. COray he wrote: "Mod
ern tlmes have dlacovered the only de
vice by whlch the people's rights can
be tie<ured, to-wit: Government by the
people, acting not in person. but by
repreeantatlvea choaen by themseives?
that la to aay, bf every man of ripe
years and sane mind, who elther con
tribtttes by his purse or his peraon to
the support of his country."
He rajOOnellad his personal feeling
with holding offlce almost contlnuously
for forty years; but when he became
Preaident he was vehen.ently in favor
of rotation in offlce. and waa the author
of the doctrtne that "to the vlctora be
long the spolls."
He cxhorted Albert Gallatln to "put
down the banka; and if this country
cannot be carried through the longeat
war against the most powerful enemy
wlthout ever knowlng the want of a
dollar, wlthout dependence on the trait
oroue claases of her cltizena, wlthout
bearlng hard on the resourcee of the
peopl*. or loading the publlc with an
InfamoeJI burden of debt. I know noth
Ing of my countrymen."
"In perfect and universal free trade"
he dlacovered another of "the natural
rights of men. I am for free commerce
with all nations, political connectlona
with none. and little or no dlplomatlo
establishment."
He was opposed to bulldlng up man
ufacturing establishments. "Let our
workshops remaln ln Europe.' ln a
letter to John Jay he wrote: "I consli
er the class of artiflcers a* par.dexers
of vlce and the inatruments by whlch
the llberties cf a country are gencr
ally overthrown." He even conal
vellow fever a provldential bleaalni
becauM "lt wtli discourage the -
of great clties in our natlon, and
these great etttea aa peatllentlal
morala, to the health and to
ertlea of manklnd."
He wrote that he waa "not a I
to a very energetk government. 1
atwaya oppraaalve.." Blaawhere he -
clared, "A free government ls of
others the n.ost energetic."
An Enemy of Titlee.
He was so Bteepcd ln the FYei
Ideaa of untvereeJ aquallty and the Int
portance of addreaalnf avarybcdy mere
|y u -CltlxenM that ho wrote. "I hope
that the terms Exoellency. Hor.or. Wor
ship Eequlre, will forever dla
from among ua. I wlsh that of Mleter
to follow them "
Hla boatmty to the Conatltutlon was
not concealed, To John Adama he
sald- I eonfess there are thinga in lt
whlch stagger all my dlspositKns to
lubacrlbe to what such an assembly
naa propoaed Th* President aecoa a
bad edltlon of a PoUah ktng." To
James Madlson he sald:
"The second featuro I dlsllke. and
what I strongly dlsllke la the abandon
ment. ln every lnstance. ot the prlncl
ple of rotation ln offlce." With char
actertBtle inconslstency he afterward
wrote to James Madiaon ln 1801.
?No Constltution was ever before ??
w*U calculated aa oura for extenaive
ampfra and aatf-government." M t?
the same man hc- had wrttten. from tbe
midst of the French Revolutlon. depre
ratttlg the tdea that Shays'e Rebelllon
conatltuted a reason for haattnlng tbe
adoptlon of the Constltution. or mak
lng lt a strong one. -Ood forbld." be
exdaimed, "that we should be twenty,
years wlthout a rebelllon. We have
had thirteen stateg Independent for
tieveti yeara. There has been but one.
rebelllon. That comes to ono rebelllon
ln a century and a half for each atate
What country ever exlated a century
and a half wlthout a rebcllion? What
aigninea a few llves lost ln a Oenturj or
two? The tree of llberty muat be re
freshed from time to tlgM *>th lbd
blood of patriots and tyranta" And
flnally he referred to the Constltution
?>s a kite sent up to keep the aenyafg
in order.''
The Louisiana PurohaM.
Afterward he became a atlckler for
the exact terms of the Constltution.
When the questlon of the purchaae o
Louisiana arose. apparetitly he did noi
thmk Of the conatltutlon at flrat Then
ho frankly admltted that the Constlta
tion gave him no authority to purchaw
Louisiana. and wrote to his polltlca
frlends aaklng them to keep qulet aboul
the constltutlonal questlon ln th*
same gtttftt he waa most rlgid about
expendlturea of publlc money, but ai
waya found waya to use it f^r othet
ends like the purchase of Louisiana,
whlch be had at heart.
He was the author of the KentucKJ
reaotUtlona, whlch aupported the ?
tremest doctrlne of State Rights an*
justifled Nulllflcatlon; and yet he wroti
elsewhere that "when any one state ?
the American Cnion refuses obedlenc*
to the Confederation to which thej
have bound themseives. the rest hav<
the naturnl right to compel lt to obeOl
ence." (Curtls. p. 302.)
Surely here are enough ineonal8ten'
cles. extravagances and exaggerationl
to ahow the need for Mr. Madlson s piej
that "allowance bo made for them."
most of them he waa abaolutely m
cere. But no aketch of hla career ol
aatlmate of hla character would .be BO*
eat tvlthout aome mentlon of othera ?