The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1878-07-31

he neither respected the name OF Jefferson
nor had any confidence whatever in our
form of government. The radical organs
are now reproducing Macaulay's estimate
of Jefferson and his opposition TO coRstitu-
tional liberty and republican institutions
with approving comments. The Journal a
few days since published the following, writ
ten by Macaulay to S. S. Randall, of New
York, upon receipt of the life of Thomas
Jefferson. He said:
do not believe that ii is possible to estab-
lish institutions that will be permanent, based
upon the votes of people counted by the heao.
That proceeds upon the superstition that the
rich and the poor, the wise and the ignorant,
as equal and endowed with equal political
power. That is the fatal vice of the institu-
lions that Jefferson founded. Now your coun-
try can prosper so long as you have great
spaces of unoccupied land, a great west for
your surplus population, but the time will
come in your history when New England will
be as thickly populated as old England, when
there will be no more fertile, unOccupied lands
for your expanding population.
Then will come the real strain and test of
your institutions. There will be periods of
scarcity and distress. Thousands of laborers
will be out of work, and men will begin to say
there is no justice in allowing one man to
have a million while another has not a meal;
no justice In letting one man ride in his car
riage and dine sumptuOusly while another
hears his children cry for bread. And when
that hour comes your government will be
brought to its final and fatal test. Then dis
sontented. hopeless, starving majority win
elect the governors of your states, the men,
bers of your legislatures, and your president;
and then fear, If not in this century, certain
ly in the next, your country Will be as fearful
ly raYaged as was the Roman empire by the
Huns and the Vandals of the fifth century;
only with this difference: your Huns and
Vandals will have been engendered by your
own institutions. Your constitution is all
sail and no anchor. There is nothing to stay
you. / wish you might have better fate, but
my wishes and my reason are at war. And,
therefore, believing your fate is certain, | can
not congratulate you upon Thomas Jefferson
and the doctrines he taught.
To publish such stuff as the above from
the pen of a prejudiced Englishman as an
argument against universal suffrage, consti-
tutional liberty, republican institutions and
democratic equality indicates distinctly the
drift of radical sentiment in favor of a cen
tralized despotism. The Journal IN COM
menting upon Macaulay's opposition to our
form of government and the exalted priv
leges enjoyed by all the people, says
Such was Macaulay's indictment of Ameri-
can institutions and his prophecy concerning
them. No more powerful indictment OF the
democratic principle or OF universal suffrage
was ever penned. Macaulay was not unfriend-
ly to the United States or to the American
people, but he was honestly opposed TO our
form of government for the reasons above
stated. He did not believe the democratic
Of the United States would stand the great
strain which all governments must stand
sooner or later.
Powerful indictments of the democratic
principle Of universal suffrage is what the
Journal styles Macaulay's preference for
kingly rule to the voice of the people in
matters of government Mr.. Jefferson was
int al into dxvifb re
OF Europe, and with that of England he
was specially familiar. In all regards
Thomas. jefferson was the superior of
Baron Macaulay as a statesman, and hence
1t lily becomes an American to insult the
country with fulsome laudations of MacsuA
lays criticisms of one Of the most distin.
guished patriots and statesmen this country
has ever produced. We are more than will
ing that universal suffrage should be demon
mated "a democratic principle" and we are
glad TO believe that it is so thoroughly incor-
porated into the life of the republic that all
of the radical organs and organ grinders
outside of hell will not be able to disturb 1t.
1t is quite possible that other English writers
have been as explicit and as emphatic as
I
and in all king cursed countries the Journal
may be able to find writers ready and willing
J to aid it in its efforts 10 overthrow the
democratic principle" of universal suffrage.
/ 1t is a democratic principle, and can not
be discarded. 1t elevates, ennobles and dig
mites the citizen, and makes the government
of the United States of the people, by the
! md fha nd 70; ina
ence those born in lowly circumstances may
rise, like Abraham Lincoln, to the highest
honors. The Journal may exhaust its rice
water arguments in favor of Macaulay's OPP
position to the democratic Jeffersonian prin-
ciples of universal suffrage, hut it will have
no effect except to demonstrate for the
| fiftieth time, in as many weeks, that the
! Journals prejudlces obscure its Judgment,
and In this instance is all the more surpris-
ing, since universal suffrage in its elevating
influence has made it possible for a saddler's
jour 10 walk the quarter deck of the ITALIA
poosa socially the peer of high government
officials. The Journal seems to think
that only in universal education has the
country any hope of maintaining universal
suffrage and of escaping the predictions of
Macaulay. 1t says:
Under a system of universal suffrage the
only safety sin universal education and In the
! constant watchfulness of the intelligent, con-
| servative elements of society to resist the in
roads of the ignorant and dangerous classes.
! There are principles abroad in the land to-day
/ with considerable following. which, If allowed
/ to prevail, will make Macaulay's prediction a
! verify before the end of the century. All that
is necessary to make them prevail is To let
them alone. They are the outgrowth of igno-
rance, and must be fought with the weapons
of intelligence.
We favor universal education, for that,
too is democratic principle, but universal
suffrage is the most important, since uni
versal education is the outgrowth Of unlver-
sal suffrage. But unfortunately neither uni
ve-sal suffrage nor universal education, nor