The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1876-07-13
THE A UTHOR OF THE DECL4RATI-
ON OF INDEPENDENCE.


Monticello, sleeps the dust of Thomas
Jefferson. That great man wished to
have recorded upon his tombstone this
epitaph:, "Author of the Declaration OF
American independence, of the Statute
of Virginia for religious freedom, and
Father of the University OF Virginia,
Linked Immortality with his name, and
eclipsing even the fame OF his own two
terms as administrator of the highest Of
fee under the Constitution Of his country
outshining the luster Of his success in adj
ding to the Union, by the Louisiana pur-
chase, a territory far greater than the
original thirteen Colonies, Jefferson Will
be best known to future ages as the writer
of that famous State paper whose phrases
have become familiar in our mouths as
household words.
Very early in life Jefferson became dis
tinguished as a master ofpolitical science,
of legal learning, and ofliterary style. 1t
is a nistakesto suppose that Jefferson S
was one of those brilliant and impulslve
minds which owe everything to impulse
and originality, and little or nothing to
patient labor On the contrary his writ
ings, his method, and his attention to
details, with the united testimony OF
those who observed him throughout his
laborious career, all testify that he was as
remarkable for the severe and protacted
labor which he bestowed upon every
subject that came before him as for the
ability with which he stated and illus
trated it. The jurisprudence of Virginia
is indebted manly to him for its preser-
yation. His sedulous care and industry
in collecting and preserving the materials
ofhistory were conspicuous. His devo,-
ton to natural science, to statistics, and
to the observation of all phenomena,
was as marked as his life long study OF
philosophy and theology, Tohis knowl-
edge Of and interest in architecture the
University of Virginia is indebted for the
possession ofgrounds and buildingshard-
iy euualed for classic grace and beauty
Of arrangement in the United States,
And there must be added to his fame Ia
fact hitherto obscure and little known
that he devised in the Continental Con-
gress the currency Of dollars and cents.
That simple decimal from which we have
found for a century Of such incalculable
convenience in all pecuniary transactions
and calculations, is due to the perspica-
city and clear headedness of Thomas
Jefferson. In fact, with all his htuitive
faculty and abundant genius, he was one
of the most practical ofmen. He kept
his private accounts with methodical
accuracy that would have done credit to
Washington himself Every book in
his literary had a private mark in the
lower margin of given page, by which
he knew it and could reclaim it. Fl.
But one overshadowing trait in the
character of jefferson, the key to hiswhole
career asa patriot and a reformer, lay in
the fact that he believed, and always act
ed on the belief, that the people were
wise and honest enough to govern them
selves. Never did he despair of the
Republic. When John Adams despaired,
and Hamilton denied and even Wash
ington doubted, Jefferson held fast by the
principles of Democracy. He had an
illimitable faith in the capacity of man
for self government. This, as all know,
is the central idea in the Declaration, as
it had been the key note to the preamble
of the Virginia Constitution, which Jeffer-
son had composed before the Declaration
was written. That Constitution was the
first formal attempt to organize an in
dependent Government in the thirteen
Colonies. 1t was framed in May and
June, I776. by convention which had
as its members such men as Madison,
Pendleton, EHarrison, Wythe, Patrick,
Henry, Edmund, Randolph, George,
Mason and Richard Henry Lee. Though
many State Constitutions have become
obsolete forgotten, or supplanted by new
phraseolgy, Jeferson's preamble to that
of Virginia still holds its place in the ex-
isting Constitution as Something which
can not be improved. 1t contains the
same patriotic and free sentiments-some
even of the same ringing sentences
which afterwards appeared in the Nation
al Declaration of independence. Those
who pretend to believe that Jefferson
or borrowed from Thomas
Paine or some other writer, the Decla-
ration of independence, would do well to
read the preamble he drafted to the Vir-
ginia Constitution, as we'll as the "Sum
mary View of the Rights Of British
America, also presented to the Conven-
ton of Virginia in I774
It's to the lasting credit of Mr.. Jeffer-
son that in an age of intense conserva.
tism in the days when the proud patrician
families ruled Virginia, he declared him
self the firm opponent Of all the existing
laws primogeniture, of entails and Of an
established church. These three great
measures of reform were innovations
destined to effect the mostradical change
ever made so speedily in the institutions
of any people. Jefferson appears to have
been born areformer. He spontaneous
ly looked at every question, to be decided
not by established usage, or by authority,
but on its intrinsic merits, and by the
reason of the case. He appealed with
W lllt luluIC HUH tllS DlSOtiy
Of the past, and his great weight in
American politics, still overshadowing
that of any other name, mark him as the
statesman fitted to guide and control pub.
lie opinion.
The errors Of Jefferson, even, sprang
from the generosity and freedom. Of his |
temperament, and were so insignificant
in comparison with his great merits and
services, that posterity has
forgotten them, AS the most vigorous
and earnest of the early protestants |
against the system of slavery, he is en-
titled to immortal honor. AS the foun-
der. of the University of Virginia, the
most widely useful and successful of all |
Southern institutions of learning; as the
of the decimal currency applied |
to gold and silver; as the President who
peacefully added great empire, inclu-
ding the most continental of rivers, to
the Republic, his name will long outlast
he roll Of more vulgar Presidents. AS |
he promulgator of broad and liberalideas