St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-04-14
THOMAS JEFFERSON.


tories is the I'd of April. but that is ac-
cording to the old system of reckoning.
In 1902 the Gregorian calendar was
adopted in England, and all dates were
moved along eleven days. The day fol-
lowing the I'd of September in that year
was called the t4th of the month. This
changed the date of WASHINGToN's
birthday, which had been the 18th under
| the former style, to the 22d, when we
now celebrate it. This reimbursement,
| for some reason which is not very ap-
| parent has never been made in JEFFER-
SONS case, and the I'd continues, though
incorrectly, to be the day held sacred to
| his memory.
JEFFERSON was a Virginiau by birth,
of fairly good family, a lawyer by pro-
fession, and possessed of what was in his
time counted independent means. He
was more than six feet in height, very
slim and little ungainly in his car
riage, with very red face and vague
way of talking when engaged in private
conversation. He had during the course
of his life great deal of experience as
parliamentarian but he never became
fluent or effective speaker, and the
number of occasions when he ventured
on public debate was very small. He
wrote very vigorous English, however,
and his state papers are models of their
kind. He was the author of the Dec
laration of Independence, which was
| adopted as he had drawn it, with only a
few verbal changes or omissions. He
also wrote book called ''Notes on Vir-
ginia," which had great circulation,
especially in Europe, and which, meas
ured by any standard, is an interesting
| and able work.
JEFFERSON was the leader of a school
| of political thinkers which grew up in
the Southern colonies under the influ-
| ence of ROUSSEAU's essay on "The Social
Compact" ROUSSEAU gave currency in a
| popular form, and at time when the
world was very ripe for their reception,
to some social theories which German
philosopher named REUCHLIN had a
long while before formulated. Ros-
SEAU'S idea was that in the state of
nature men were completely happy, be-
cause they were completely at liberty to
do as they would, and that all the sor-
rows of life were the result of their de-
parture from this primitive simplicity
and freedom. Had they never consent
ed to surrender these for the restraints
of the social compact, the inequalities
and hardships of modern society would
never have been known. He put the
worlds ideal in the past and urged men
to try to get back to what he called the
| state of nature.
JEFFERSON and his Virginia friends
were enamored of these doctrines, which
had the greatest contemporary prestige,
and they dreamed Of founding in the
woods of America a new Arcadia after
| the plan OF ROUSSEAU, where there
would be as little government as was
consistent with safety and order, and
where people would lead quiet lives of
much contentmeut and simplicity. They
| hoped that there might be built on this
| side of the Atlantic nation OF husband
men, free from the cares and struggles
of city life, whose daily dole of work
| and pleasure would be unburdened by
the eXactions of kings or the confusion
which attended the international rela-
| tons of foreign states. JEFFERSON
himself was abroad at the time the con-
stitution was adopted, but his fellow
students were here. and the strict and
limited line of powers which is laid
down in that instrument is the eviden &c
of their influence in its creation
These theories of JEFFERSON's were
never allowed an opportunity for a test.
The control of the nation for the first
| twelve years of its existence was i'll the
hands of the school of HAMILTON
They rent and altered the fabric en-
trusted to them until it was no longer
recognizable, and when its care was re-
stored to its friends, 1t was then too late
to regain what had been lost. JEFFER
son made brave effort to do this, bu
his own character and contemporary
circumstances were too much for him
His strength was not executive, and the
student and theoriSt found that it re
quired other equipments than knowl
edge of history to govern a world. Hi:
favorite notion was that state should
be administered according to principles
The Federalists laughed at him, anC
said that it must be administered by
circumstances. And before his second
term ended JEFFERSON learned that. a
least in his time, this was true.
The freebooter NAPOLEON was then
in his glory, and the English
and the French in turn despoiled our
national commerce. The Sage of Month
cello wrote them long protests in good
literary style, and illumined by the pro-
foundest political philosophy, but they
declined to read them. The New Eng
land shippers lashed him as a weakling
and a fool, and threatened secession
and the foreign foes advised him to
abandon literature and clear his ships
of war for action. In the terrible trials
of those sad years the political theory of
let alone suffered a terrible reverse
JEFFERSON himself practically abdi-
Gated and left the management Of
affairs to his secretary and successor,
JAMES MADISON. The War of 1872 fol
lowed as matter of course, and the
doctrines of ROUSSEAU passed out Of
popularity in the smoke of the Ameri
can cruisers Oh the lakes and the ocean,
This brief epitome of great man:
life does Scant justice to his greatness
and the value of MS work. His mis-
take was in thinking that theories were
available as motive powers in state
craft. They are not. Expediency has
to govern in this field, as in the lives O
individuals. Creeds and principles are
like the rules of whist. They suggest
not what one shall do. but what one may
not do. They are valuable as supplying
standard to which effort should b'
made to approximate, and haven to
which to return after an enforced de
parture. The ideas which JEFFERSON
Endorsed and created are the founda
ton of our system, to be abandoned
: only in response to imperative necessity
and to be held to as the shore of secur
ity and strength. He stands in the his
tory of the world as the creedmaker OF
the greatest nation of all time, and thi!
| is a OOSitiOn lOftier than fine StatpSman,S