Centre Democrat. [volume] (Bellefonte, Pa.) 1848-1989, 1882-08-03

delight by all who hope for the restora.
ton of Jeffersonian principles:
York, July 20.-My Dear Sir Moth.
ing could have given me greater pleas
ure than the receipt of your kind COM
munication of the 18th inst, informing
me of my unanimous election to hon
orary membership in the Jefferson As.
sociation OF harrisburg. | accept the
compliment with lively and grateful
sense of its true value and ! shall en-
deavor to make my name worthy of its
place on your roll by continuance in
those humble but earnest efforts in the
great cause you are organized to pro
mote which have doubtless procured
| Lle this unexpected honor.
When the federalists in the closing
years of the last century had well nigh
reyolutionized the government estab-
llshed by the constitution, transcend
ing its most important limitations and
invading many of the fields of power
expressly reserved from its operation,
their dislodgement became necessary to
the preservation of the Republic. That
| like the present, was a most unequal
| struggle between power, patronage,
money and monopoly on the one side
and the masses of working people on
the other. The latter must have gone
down and all that they contended for
must have been lost in one prodigiOus
disaster but for the character OF their
organization and leadership. These
were wisely adapted to the nature OF
the conflict Jefferson, Madison, our
own Gallatin, aud their devoted com
! patriots were not content with merely
sounding the alarm. They called the
people together in their primary capa.
! city, and urged them to organize in
close and permanent associations like
! the popular committees of the revOlu.
ton, where they might take council
one with another respecting the public
! dangers and the means of defence.
! These were the "Dem0crotic Societies"
which filled the fedcralists with terror
by their bold agitations, and which it
was once actually proposed to put down
by the strong hand under a statute to
tie passed for the purpose. The first
one established in Pennsylvania was
formed in Philadelphia in 1893, with
! David Rlttenhouse president and list
! Of other officers some Of whose names
are only less illustrious than his. The
| Democratic societies were, as Mr.. eifer
son said, the nurseries of the Republi.
can principles of the constitution" and
to them, with the widespread influence
Of their discussions and publications,
and the "rousing of the people" 10y
| frequent meetings in small bodies, where
every man had a voice, was due, in no
small degree, the great deliverance of
! 1900 and the defeat of the Infamous
| scheme to exclude Mr. Jefferson from
/ the office to which he had been elected,
/ as MIR. Tilden was excluded in 1877.
/ The Democratic societies of our day
are called jefferson ASS0ciafiyHs not
merely in veneration of the personal
character Of the great apostle Of AmeIi.
can liberty, but to indicate our devo.
! ton to the body of political principles
which is justly known by the name OF
! him who formulated them in matchless
simplicity and illustrated them practi-
cally and personally in those two ad.
ministrations of the government which
! all men agree ushered in the Golden
| age of the Republic The name of
Jefferson stands, not for a man only,
/ but for faith, not merely for the re.
yered shade of the leader, whose fame is
concecrated wherever the language of
| freedom is known, but for doctrine as
certainly and as absolutely essential to
political salvation ss any for which men
ever fought or died.
But il is said that Jefferson is dead"
| think this is a mistake. Jefferson
died in the body some hours before his
great friend and antagonist, John
| Adams, but the last words of the latter
were: "Jeherson still lives" and they
were true, lie lives in his deathless
work in his teachings and in his in.
! tlueuce, and when he ceases to live, the
republic itself will have ceased to be.
When Mr.. Adams died the failure oil
fedora ism and the triumph of Democ
racy seemed both complete. But if
any man imagined that these conditions
have been reversed, and that the
"strong government" for which the
federalists have Contended from Hamil
ton and Adams to Grant and Arthur,
has finally displaced the Republican
government OF enumerated and limited
powers, let him remember the federallst
exultatiOn which went before the mighty
tall of 1880. The principles of Jeiier.
son are dear to every honest Republican
heart; there never was moment since
the adoption of the constitution, when,
If put fairly at issue, they would not
have received the unreserved approba.
ton of vast majority of the people.
Jefferson is not dead. lie will be dead
only when we ourselves or our less for.
tunate children are dead in political
slavery, that is to say, when the inde.
pendent Commonwealths which took
their places among the nations of the
earth upon Jeiierson's immortal decla.
ration, and were again rescued by him
from a worse peril in 1900, shall have
been crushed in the coils of corrupt
centralization, and the last yestige of
local seligovernment shall have been
swept away. But until then let no
honest Democrat listen TO the shallow
and pitiful taunt that Thomas Jefferson
is dead. The words cen have no mean.
ing, unless it be implied that the princi
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