Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-07-05

Il
university, had at all times an unwaverine
faith in the capacity of the people for self gov
| eminent, was opposed to all Capitalization o.
power, and whether as planter or President
uniformly set an example of extreme republi
| can simplicity in manners.
He had much to do if he did n II initiate them
in lnaugurating the committees of correspon
dence in the colonies. which unified and soiidi
| ned the revolutionary sentiment.
Having none of the military qualities OF
| washington or Hamilton none of the oratory
| OF the rollicking Patrick Henry, who has been
called 1.-The foresI-born Demosthenes." none OF
| the debating qualities OF Madison or Hamilton
yet ne was master of the pen, knew how to
build up and maintain great State, was a
| shrewd diplOmatist, and in craftsmanship was
1 unsurpassed by any American of his time.
As an example of his republican simplicity,
1t IS said that on the day of his Inauguration he
| lode on horseback to the Capitol. tied the ami
NAL to the picket-feoce, and, in plain garb.
delivered his inaugural and took the oath OF
office in the Senate chamber but TO show the
| short period as ninety years, McMaster in his
History of the People of the United states, =
| says that surrounded by crowd of citizens
and troop of militia, beating drums and bear
| ing flags. he ambled on slowly to the Capitol
| and mounted the steps with the shouts of a
multitude, and the roar OF cannon ringing in
his ears -
But his republican manners would not have
been more conspicuous in personally tying his
horse to the picket-fence, than when in Italy he
| filed his pockets with an improved species of
rice Wllcn cDulQ uOL Dc uuut- tut
laws OF that country. and forwarded 1t from
France to the Csrolinss. where IL was subse-
ouentiy cultivated and has since become the
best rice grown in America.
And still another more forclble example of
his republican manners may be given: When
Merry, the British Minister called on him for
an audience, dressed in court costume and with
elaborate ceremonial. Jefferson received him in
his slippers. and as Merry says in slovenly at
| tire. Possibly, however, their watches may not
| have agreed, or Merry may have called before
| the hour of appointment.
Amid the engrossing duties of the Presiden-
tial Office he could ind time to write to Bacon,
| his man OF all work. that the old garden pales
at Monticello needed patching up.
His three great masterpieces are the Declare
| ton of Independence, the statute for religious
| freedom, and the founding of the University of
| Virginia, and these three achievements he
caused to be engraven on his top bstone; not
| that he was President of the United States be-
| cause there have been and will be many Presi-
| DENTS not that he acquired Louisiana, because
| in that purchase he mad many co-laborers; not
| that he protected the American flag and Ameri-
| can seamen against the eorsairs of the Barbary
states, for in this he was supplemented by
others; not that he assisted in giving TO the
Union the Northw' stern Territory, which has
| since from an uubroken wilderness been trans
| formed into populous and imperial States; but
| he modessiy claimed what could not engender
| discussion. and which has never been denied
him, that he was the author of that instrument
| which you have heard read to day, that he first
| laid the foundation in the statutory law of this
country of what the Puritans fed hither to OBJ
| tain, freedom to worship God, and founded the
| University of Virginia 10 educate people to an
appreciation of the liberties which they have
achieved, believing that education and liberty
must and should g. hand in hand. He had the
sagacity to see that the 4th of July would be
celebrated as the natal day of the republic
| throughout al the coming ages alike In me-
| tropolis and hamlet in country and in town
| amid the waving of flags, the firing OF cannon,
and the huzzas of millions then unborn; that
! the principle OF religious liberation so long
| fought Tor would ultimately be conceded as the
undoubted birthrighto OF every American citizen,
and that the University of Virginia would be-
come the nucleus of higher education and the
alma mater, as it has since proven to be, of
many iilustrious sons
Ali this will EMIT Jefferson TO be called 1.-The
sage of Monticello" Before have done shall
refer to another sage not of the Cavalier but of
the Puritan type-''the sage OF Quincy"-and
that Massachusetts and Virginia, which strove
tegether in the adoption OF the Declaration of
Independence a half century later, on this an
niversary, had to submit to the loss by inevita-
bic death each of its great and distinctive type
of illustrious sonship. Jefferson believed in
territorial ACKNOWLEDGMENT, and after acquiring
Louisiana was Wistfnlly looking f1rward TO the
acquisition of Florida and Cuba. The Govern
ment while he was PresideItwas an economical
Government, distinguished for looping off all
unnecessary offices and expenditures, for sup
preston OF internal taxation, neutrality and
freedom from all international complications
and paying off gradually the national debt.
Still he believed in jealousy watching the
movements of foreign nations on this continent
and prefigured what was afterward known as
the Monroe Doctrine. The cost of the war was
estimated at Sl49, 900 900, but such has been the
growth of population and the DEVELOPMENT of
this country that the " ar debt in 1865 for Pc
Rod of five years instead of eight as at the Rev
olution, amounted to nearly s2,S4>,000000 In
1870 the center OF population of this country was
As miles east by north of Cincinnati, but now it
is very much further west.
When the question of locating the seat of
a
argument was advanced in favor of Wrights
Ferry on the Susquehannah, as being the center
of territory and population. and IL appeared 10
be the strongest competing point with the city
OF Washington. To strengthen the contention
in favor of Wrights Ferry, the epicurean argu-
ment was used that the waters of the Susque-
hannah were well stocked with fish. Indeed.
il is claimed that com promise was made, and
the assumption of the debts of the States by the
national Government was bought for capital
on the Potomac. Who knows now or cares
anything about VEights Ferry, save its eupho
NOUS appellation?
1t never entered the minds of that generation
to conceive the proud destiny which awaited
this country under the fostering and benign
care of Jefferson, and his principles which
became a part of the nationa! life.
Jefferson was one OF the most pleasant and
placable of men, OF broad humanitarian views,
and his great heart beat syncronously with the
heart OF humanity. When in Office he fire.
quently sighed for bucoiic pleasures, to be on
his farm, among his books, with his children
where ne c0llQ the Tune ever so Pleasantly
with his double brood of the young Jefersous,
and the young Cars, the children of his de-
| ceased orother-in-law, Dabney Carr.
He was singularly free from rough points and
| self assertion. No statesman was ever freer
| from yindictiveness in his personal or official
relations. Like the great Washington, whose
military qualities and Fabian policy carried our
arms to success, he believed at all times in CO.
| ing what was right.
| People wondered at his phenomenal success
| and forgot the talism9n with which he won It.
Yet with all this he was man of strongly-pro-
| nounced views, and chung TO them with I'M
tinching pertinacity, his enemies often calling
/ him a radical and a leveler. What socially
predominated in him was his unbounded faith
| in the people, believing in local government tor
local concerns, and national government for
only national purposes: and even amid the ex-
| cesses of the French revolution, the September
messacres of 1892 and the subsequent decapita-
ton of Marie Antoinette, he never lost his abld-
| ing faith in the people. He did not fly Oft at a
tangent and rave like Burke, who when con-
! templating the Jacobinical excuses, could only
| think OF the morning star which he had once
seen rising at Versailles, of the beauteous being
of whom he had so eloquently said: and
never lighted on this orb, which she hardly
seemed 10 touch. more delightful vision
| Yet with all of Jeffsrson's love for France our
ally in the Revolution, he talked plainly to that
people, that ii the course of the sturdy Western
j pioneers was obstructed In their progress down
! the Mississippi TO the Gulf, he would unite the
American with the English feet and help TO
| throw off the shaekles which iettered Ameri-
can commerce; and when, finally, Louisiana
| was purchased but there was a delay in hand
ing it over by the authorities, Jefferson declared
! that he would take possession forthwith
| whe her delivered or not.
| After his TWO Presidential terms he retired 10
Monticello, the founder of party, policy, and
a creed, living long enough 10 see his two dear
est personal and political friends, Madison and
| Monroe, succeed him, and realizing that what
| he had striven tor through many long years OF
| clashing opinions and personal unrest was at
length obtained and had become the abiding
/ faith OF the great mass of the American people
| The committee on the Declaration of hide
| pendence consisted of Thomas Jefferson John
Adams, Benjamin Franklin. Roger Sherman
| and Robert r. Livingston. l need not tell you
that the draft was fotcible presentation of the
| grievances of the Colonies, and a savage and
| deserved ariaignment of George III. and his
| Ministers.
II was something more than the destruction
| of single ship like the Gaspe in Narragansetl
| bay, and even that led to an Act of Parliament
whereby any colonist destroying so much as q
| button OF a mariners coat might be carried tc