The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1896-04-03
THOMAS JEFFERSON
Allan McDermott's 5 Address
OH the Founder Of the
Democratic Party.
HIS STRUGGLE FOR RELIGIOUS LIBERTY
Town Of Union Fittingly Observes
the Great Statesman's
Birthday.
HIS STRUGGLE FOR RELIGIOUS LIBERTY


Ruth's Hall Allan McDermott de
Hvered an address on Jefferson, in which
he said ~
Thomas Jefferson was born in yir
giaia on the I'd of April, l74s. His par
ents were neither rich nor poor. Hi
share of the paternal estate embraced tn,
farm of Monticello, where the chilt
Thomas was born. Jefferson was {
close student of law, philosophy, polite.
and human nature. About the time he
arrived at mans estate, the agitation
against the oppressive measures of the
English Parliament had reached the stage
of emfbitterment. and we are not sur
prised to find young Mr. Jefferson taking
an active part in the protests agains
English misrule. From 1772 to 177s we
find the names of George Washington
Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry in
tertwined in the movement of the Vir
ginia Colony toward severance from the
British Crown. In Its and 1916 Jeffer-
son was member of the Continenta
Congress, and, as chairman of a com.
mittee of that Congress, he reported, or
the 2Sth of June, 1776, document which
win live as long as lips live to speak
the language of mana document which
was, is aid ever will be pillar of flame
to guide man in his search for liberty
amid the binding darkness of oppression
the Declaration of Independence.
From prehistoric times, nations hac
bowed to the insolence of power
Crowns had covered the heads of the
infamous, and honest worth had faller
PROSTATE at the feet of titled criminals
nized. What man was depended al
most entirely upon where he was born
birth, not worth, gave him the right tc
walk as becomes one created in the image
of God. The enormous expenses OF
royalty necessitated demands that were
ruinous upon the colonies. Protests were
unavaiiing. The call for justice was
answered by the tread pof soldiers II
seemed as though the cry for justice
was to be answered only by the exc
cutioner. The minute men had died al
Lexington, Warren had fallen at Bun.
ker Hill, the colonies were in gloom an6
doubt.
Then there came burst of light. II
was no longer a question of taxation; nc
longer a question of the right to be rep
resented in Parliament, for the pen o1
Jefferson had written these words:-sWe
hold these truths to be self evident; thai
all men are created equal; that they are
endowed by their Creator with certain
inalienable rights that among these are
life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness
That, to secure these rights, govern
ments are instituted among men, deriv-
ing their just powers from the consent
of the governed; that whenever any
form of government becomes destructive
of these ends, it is the right of the people
to alter or abolish it, and 10 institute "a
new government
ITO the support of this declaration
Jefferson and his colleagues pledged their
lives, their liberty and their sacred
honor. You know the result. Than that
document no grander was ever written
by human hand; the man who does not
reverence it and the memory of its au-
thor is untitled for American citizen
ship.
This was Jefferson's greatest work in
the cause of human freedom; but there
are too many efforts of his noble mind
that must be mentioned in the same
breath.
sDeclining reelection to Congress. Mr..
Jefferson. three months after he had
penned the Declaration of Independence,
entered the Legislature of Virginia and
there raised his voice for religious Hber-
ty. In the eighteenth century, it was
the law of Virginia that the man who de
MED the truth of the Christian religion,
or the existence of the Trinity or the inspir-
alton of the Scriptures, as that religion,
Trinity and Scriptures were declared to
be by the King of England, should be
imprisoned for three years. Just think
Of the amount Of lying man had to dc
s in those days to keep out of Jail.
ssf those good people who are
now worrying themselves because
we haven't a national religion
or State religion win read the
history of the religious disputes
among the American colonists, they will
become better citizens; they will appreci-
ate why, returning from the liberty-la-
den atmosphere of the continental Con
gress, Thomas Jefferson was intent upon
placing in, the constitution of Virginia a
declaration in favor of religious liberty
admire the Jefferson of the Continental
Congress battling for the right Of man to
Jefferson Of the Virginia Legislature
lighting for the absolute separation oi
Church and State. He could not carry
his point while he was a member of the
the Executive Chamber, and, in 1879, un-
der Governor Jefferson, Virginia became
a State without a creed-a State in which
it was recognized that the matter of a
mans religion is one in which no govern
ment has right to interfere.
@The. next STEP taken by Jefferson
showed how truly he believed that all
men are born free and equaL In his
fight for religious freedom he had shown
that he loved man, irrespective of creed
He next showed that his love was ire
spective of color Thomas Jefferson
hated slavery He was a slave owner;
he had been surrounded by slaves from
childhood. But his liberty loving soul
abhorred the institution. He knew that
all the constitutions, crowns and creeds
Of men could not make slavery right. He
knew that God never commanded slavery
or justified it: he knew that every iJIStf-
fication of slavery found in any book
creed was put in that book or creed to
satisfy the avarice of man; and so know
ing, he determined to move for the aboli-
page in his history than that which bears
the Virginia enactment of 177e, attaching
the penalty of death to the further i'm
portation of slaves from foreign shores.
He advised the emancipation of all
slaves thereafter born in Virginia, but
this was defeated The defeat did not
change his views, and more than forty
years later, in 1921, ne wrote referring to
his attempt to abolish slavery, Tt was
found that the public mind would not yet
bear the proposition, nor will it bear ii
even at this day. Yet the day is not far
distant when it must bear 1t, and adopt
it, or worse will follow. Nothing is
more certainly written in the book Of
fate than that these people are to be free
Forty two years after Thomas Jefferson
wrote those words, Abraham Lincoln
Freedom from the crown having been
attained, and the missions of Jefferson to
England and France executed we come
to the period during which he earned
his title Of Father Of American Demec-
racy' He was in France when our con-
~ have been cured Of that tired feel
ing by Hoods Sarsaparilla ID. a. Buer-
ager, No. 2S2 Adams street, Hoboken, n, =.
S2A