New-York tribune., 1885-03-04
perhaps it will be concluded that Mr.. Cleveland
has selected less wisely than James X. Polk.
JEFFERSON AND HIS HORSE.

has selected less wisely than James POLK.
JEFFERSON AND HIS HORSE.
The Worid is trihing with the most sacred feelings
of the Democratic heart. On the day before the
Inauguration of President Cleveland it publicly
repudiates me-honored tradition of Jefersonian
simplicity. 1t dismisses rs q fantastic myth, or as
the fiction Of a disurdered imagination, the oft
repeated legend of the inauguration the first Demo
cratic President What sturdy Democrat is there
who does not know it by heartf Has there been
single year since the century opened when the
American Deople have not been reminded by sprout-
ing roads politicians and by full-blown Demo-
cratic statesmen that Mr.. Jefferson set for all time
the example of extreme simplicity as habit be-
coming the first citizen of o free peoplef Yet The
World on the eve Of the grand jubilee of a free
people" has both the hardhood and the cruelty TO
publish cartoon portrait of the first Democratic
President, and to deny point blank underneath that
he tied his horse to the fence in front of the Capitol
on the most evcntful day of his career
In sorrow, not in anger, We appeal from the care
less sceptical and irrevereut World to the hearts
and consciences of the Democratic party. This is
day Tor which that patient and lOng-suffering
organization has been waiting for quarter of
century, In the darkest hours of political disaster
it has consoed itself with memories of its departed
greatness, and refreshed itself with the thought
that Thomas Jefferson rode to the Capitol unat-
tended, dismOunted without the aid Of lackey
guard or politician, hitched the horse to post
with his own hands, and mounted the steps q
stately but solitary figure. That tradition has
kept the party alive when there has not seemed to
be anything else to live for. And that a
Democratic President is to be inaugurated. aud
cymbals and chimes, gongs and tsh-hOrns are
attuned to the jubilee of an emancipated Nation,'
who snail dare to say that Thomas Jefferson did
not hitch his own horsef The World dares. 1t says
plainly that it is mistake; that Mr.. Jefferson
repaired to the Capitol accompanied by number
of citizens that if he rode. he did not ride alone,
and that he probably walked. General Washing
ton had done before him; and that the hitching
post story has basis for credibility In the news
paper accounts of the Inauguration. 1t rejects one
of the most beautiful and inspiring legends OF the
storied past. 1t does this no better evidence
than newspaper clipping: and it leaves trium-
phant party this great and glorious day with the
humiiiat.ng consciousness that there is not, aud
never has been, any such thing as Democratic sim
plicity of the real old .Jeiersonian kind.
Now, as every Democratic Guppy knows, there
are chords In the human heart. Three generations
of American freemen have been taught to believe
that Mr. Jefferson did hitch his own horse after
riding to the Capitol fence like ono OF u. L. Il.
James's solitary cavaliers; aud the Democratic
party declines to accept tho revised version with
the pomp and pageantry OF grand calvacade OF
admring friends. parades by companies of rlilemen
and artillery. honorary salutes, of festvty
and midnight illumination. The Democratic party
insists upon having the horse tied to the fence
every time IL was born in that IA til, aud it will
never say die without confesslng It. John DAVIS,
an English traveller who witnessed the scene. is on
record as saving: His dress of plain cloth.
and he rode on horseback to the Capitol without
single guard or even servant IN his train. dis
mounted without assistance. and htched the bride
of bis horse TO the palisades Those are the plain
facts: and nobody outside The Horh Office can
donbt that the newspaper reporter who gave
different account of the transaction wilfully mis-
PRESENTED 10 from sheer malice after having tried
to turn an honest penny by offering to hold the
horse and receiving the stern rebuke from Mr..
Jefferson that the incoming administration was to
be- one of reform.
Does ANYBODY suppose that Mr.. Jefferson would
have complained of General Washingtons inaugu-
ration as "not at all in keeping with the simplicity
demanded of "A democratic government" and not
have tied his own horse to the fence when he had
the chance 10 set tho example of unaffected sim
plicty for Americans to the third and fourth gen
erationsf OF course he tied his horse. And II Mr..
Cleveland is to he another Jefferson. he must not
only deliver inaugural that may be read III
parallel columns with that of the pioneer Demo
cratic President but he must also tie his horse to
the nearest fence IL Hubert o. Thompson or
Smith Weed tries to hold the br!dle he must
answer that the era of extravagance and misgoverp
Inent has passed away and as n sign that good old
Democratic simplicity has returned he must do the
hitchlng himself