The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1882-04-13
SHALL THE REPUBLIC BEPREsERvED
Mr.. TiIden's Letter to the jefferson Club of
New Haven.

URE1SIONES AldTCn 81, lSoz.
GENTLEMEN: l have received your
letter in behalf of the jefferson Club of
New Haven, inviting me to be present
at their cOmmemOratiOn of the birth of
Thomas jefferson. Although l am
obliged to deny myself the pleasure of
meeting with you on that occasion, /
share the feelings which bring you to-
getheT.
Mr.. jefferson has many titles to the
reverence of the American people and
of all lovers of liberty throughout the
world. He was among the earliest, most
resOlute, and most steadfast of the pa
triOts who upheld the popular rights in
the incipient struggles of our ReVOlu-
tiOn, when the part he took required a
higher order of courage, of self-denial,
and of genius than were necessary at
any subsequent period of our history.
He penned the immortal statement of
the principles that led our ancestors to
assert the independent existence of our
country, and which has been substan-
TALLY adopted as a model for every peO-
pie who have since attempted to estab-
lish national independence on the basis
of human rights.
He was first in his day to completely
emancipate his own mind from the
mOnarchical and aristOcratical tradi-
tiOns which still enslaved most of the
"
But the obligations of the world to
Mr.. Jefferson do not end here. On the
completion of the Federal Constitution.
GOuverneur Morris being asked what he
thought of it, answered: "That de-
pends upon how it is construed" After
the organization of the Federal Govern
ment, powerful class sought to impress
upon its practical working the simili-
tude of the British system. Mr.. Jeffer-
NQrag nf
formed to resist these efforts, and to hold
our institutions to the popular character
which was understood to belong to them
when the Constitution was ratified by
the people
By his infexible adherence to free
principles, by his untiring efforts, by
his cOulseis, and by the magic of his
pen, he was the principal agent in Tescu-
ing from its greatest peril, and while
yet in its infancy, government by the
people, for the people.
The arduOuS contest resulted in a
political revolution which brought Mr.
Jefferson into the Presidency. He put
the ship of State, to use his own express
sion, upon the Republican tack" He
arrested centraliZing tendencies, rein
VigOrated local self-gOvernment, re-
stored the rights of the States, and pro-
tected and enlarged the domain of the
individual judgment and conscience.
For eight years he administered the
Government, and for sixteen years it
was administered by his pupils under
his observation and advice. Thus was
established a habit which largely shaped
the standards for the guidance of the
popular judgment, the modes of think
ing of statesmen, and the general course
of government for sixty years. How
important such habit is will be appre-
ciated when we consider that usurpa-
tiOn has often been successfully accom-
plished in other countries by men WELD
ing the executive power; and when we
are reminded that Jefferson sincerely
feared that Hamilton, who thought our
Government ''frail and worthless fab
Tic," would change it if he came into
power; and when we also recall the fact
that Hamilton himself has left on record
his belief that Burr would have wrought
a personal usurpatiOn if he could have
gTasped the Presidency.
MIR. Jefferson gave to our administra-
tive system an aspect of Republican
he repressed jObbery as well
as all perVeTsiOns of power, and by his
precepts, his influence and his example.
the standard of political morals.
In his personal practice he was not only
pure, but, to make his example more
effective, ne refrained, while administer
ing the greatest of official trusts, from
all attemp's to increase his own fortune,
even by methods open to every private
citizen.
In a period when there seems to be
little respect for the limitations of power
prescribed by our written Constitution;
when assumptions of ungranted auth0ri-
n are rife In ali the departments Of the ]