Litchfield enquirer., 1859-04-28

GOV. CHASE ON THOS. JEFFERSON. The subjoined letter from Gov. Chase, of Ohio. was addressed to the committee of the Republicans of Boston, who had in charge the arrangements for the recent commemoration of Jefferson's birthday in that city:
 COLUMBUS, March 29, 1859. Gentlemen To participate with you in the celebration of the birthday of Jefferson would be great qualification, and l am truly sorry that cannot avail myself of your invitation to do so.
 The disposition, perhaps more general now than some years since, to recur to the examples and precepts of the founders of our institutions, bctokens good to the Republic.
 In history and in biography, as we'll as from the rostrum of the eloquent orator, and thro' the spontaneous outpouring of the heart in popular celebrations, the grand character of Washington has been more than ever con- meEded to the love, the reverence, and the patriotic imitation of his conntrymen God grant that the lessons so imprcss.vely taught by his fortitude, his patience, his wisdom, his sublime self-tontrol, and his disinterested devotion to his country, may sink deep into our hearts
 So, too, in the same modes and by the same agencies, unpromptcd except by grateful .ad- miration and generous sympathy, the charac- of late years, been made more and more famil- far to the knowledge and affections of the peo- pie. Aud certainly among all the great statesmen of the Revolutionary era, no one has left behind him instructions more valuable or more valued for coming generations.
 It was his fortune to be the leader of a party ill time of sharp contentious, the bit terhess of which, after more than half cen tury, is not wholly gone. But in the spirit of his own eulogy upon the services of John Ad ans to the cause of freedom, at the critical juncture when the question of independence was ill the scales, even those who have felt constrained to censure some parts of his pub lie conduct, are emulous in their approval of the general wisdom of his political teachings.
 And never can these teachings be more practically important as guides to action than now, when the disintegraton of old political parties and the gradual formation of new or ganiZations denote social and civil develope ment which demands the wise application of old and immutable principles to new and changing circumstances.
 The question of slavery, for example, so often compromised, unadjusted, unsettled, to perplex parties and politicians with imperious demands for true solution and final disposition where can that quston be studied to better purpose than under the teachings of Jefferson When. after the close of the Revolutionary struggle, he saw the great evil arresting the progress and paralyzing the power of his be- loved native Commonwealth, he proposed to incorporate into her fundamental law, through Constitutional Convention, then expected to be held, simple declaration that all persons born after the year 1900 should be free. The Convention was not held, and the remedy was not applied. A year afterwards the vast ter ritory northwest of the Ohio became tue un- disputed domain of the Union through the ces' sions of the several states which claimed sepa- rate titles or interest in it. The grand idea that with the new century should be il.augu- rated new era for Virginia, just sorrowtully relinquished, revived in the statesn ans mind in respect to the new territory. He introdu- ced into Congress all ordinance for it's govern ! ment in which he incorporated a provision that there should be neither slavery nor invol- untary servitude within it's limits after 1900. This provision, somewhat modified, became part of the fundamental law of the Northwest 1 in the ordinance of l787-with what benef- cent results, let the prosperity and power ol the five great states carved out of it bear wit ness. How simple, yet how effectual this plaI. of Jefferson for the solution of the slavery question Prevent its extension into the ter l lri<o tho 1o ho government: stay its increase, mitigate it's evls, and finally get rid of it altogether with in the states by state action, wisely adapted to circumstances, without federal intervention. Who can doubt, that, had the policy then re- commended been adopted and persevcrlngly l pursued, the question of slavery would long since have found it's peaceful and satisfactory solution in general amelioration and enfran- chisement .s
 And then, with what profound sagacity he seized: and with what clearness and boldness he announced the fundamental principles ol social order and just government! How can l the grateful homage of mankind ever fail from l the memory of the man who incorporated into the Declaration of Independence the great doc. Urine of the equal natural rights of men, and thus secured to it, for the first time ill the worlds history, place in nations creed And how large the debt we owe him on oth- CT grounds for his lessons of confidence in the masses of the people, of just regard, in legislation and administration, to all home ii- terests and of wise lberality toward emi- grants from other lands seeking free and hon. orable homes in ours for his warnings against extravaganza in government expenditure and ,, it's inevitable concomitants oppressive taxatiol and debt against the surrender or comprom ise of the rights of states against the zen
 traliziBg tendencies, so dangerous to liberty, ol federal power and last, but by no means
 least, against the silent, and because silent
 most periIous encroachments of federal ~ju
 diciary, perverted from it's noble function o1
 administering justice into convenient means for the subyersi0n of state sovereignty and the