Birmingham state herald. (Birmingham, Ala.) 1895-1897, 1896-10-18

MES to blast his private as we'll as his
public Characterization every gale that
came from the north was laden with the
envenomed breath of SANDER?
Made No Reply to His Accusers.
His composure was not disturbed by the
raging storm. Serene in the conscious
ness of his rectitude and the genuineness
of his patriotism, he remained passive
spectator of the scene, though often
urged by friends to a different course. He
never would descend to newspaper refu-
tation of calumny, and he never, in any
instance, appealed to the retribution of
the laws. From his rule of conduct in this
respect neither newspaper diatribe nor
the frenZied denunciation of ecclesiastical
bigotry and hate could provoke him to
depart.
q know" he wrote to a friend, chat
I might have filled the courts of the
United States with actions for these SLAM
ders and have ruined, perhaps, many
persons who are not innocent. But this
would be no equivalent for the loss Of
character. leave them, therefore, IL the
reproof of their own conscienees. II
these do not condemn them, there will yet
come a day when the false witness will
meet Judge who has not slept over his
SANDERS If the Rev. Cotton Mather
Smith believed this as firmly as do, he
would surely never have affirmed that L
had obtained my property by fraud and
robbery; that in one instance l had de-
frauded and robbed a widow and father
less children of an estate to which l was
executor of 10000 pounds sterling by
keeping the property and paying them in
money at the nominal rate when 1t was
worth no more than 40 to l, and that all
this could be proved"
But the People Stood by Him.
Despite the rancorous campaign
against him doubtless partly because of
it,, despite the direful predictions of
Hamilton and the politicians. the lurid
,it,,c nf oaxr IO. To- nd
ISLANDERS and denunciations by multi
tude of preachers, the people elected Mr..
jefferson. None of the terrible things
came to pass that were predicted as the
consequence of such action on their part.
On the contrary, under his wise, demo-
cratic administration of the government
the country prospered SO that when his
term expired he was chosen for another
term by an electoral majority many
times greater than he had on his first
election, and greater than ever received
by any other president save and except
only those two other Virginans, George
Washington and James Monroe.
Commenting on the calm and dignified
course of Mr.. Jefferson during that cam
paign of abuse and SANDER, a blographer
says: "IIe probably appreciated that the
rancor and personal malignity of his OPP
ponents were sure indication OF their
sense of weakness and of coming defeat.
The party which INDUCES most freely in
ably finds itself beaten at the polls
Jefferson and Bryan.
In his address to the democratic clubs
at st. Louis Mr. Bryan, noticing that
they have adopted button bearing the
likeness of Jefferson, said: IF you had
searched through al history you could
not have found a man more worthy OF be
ing taken as your ideal statesman, be-
cause in the history of the human race
there has been but one Thomas JEFFERSON.
Of all the constructive statesmen whom
the world has ever SEEM Thomas Jeffer-
son stands first 1t is not surprising
that the presidential candidate who
avows such an opinion as that encounters
the bitterest hostility in the section that
was so bitterly hostile to Thomas Jeifer-
son.
Their Opinions About Farmers.
In his speech at Bridgeport, Conn.,, Mr..
Bryan said: "I warn you that the farmers
of this country are the Samsons, ana
when they fall they pull down the pillars
of the temple with them"
At Springfield, Mass, he said: In pub
lie life and in business life the best brains
that you have come from the farmers OF
| this country"
Now. the politicians and the business
men" of the east do not think as MI.
BRYAN does about the farmers. They Go
not think farmers should have as much
consideration from those who run the
| government as Mr.. Bryan thinks they
should. They place much lower estl-
mate upon the farmers worth and i'm
portance to the country, and upon the
| farmers intellect than Mr. Bryan does.
But upon this subject, as upon others, MI.
| Bryan is in accord with Thomas Jeffer-
son. who said: "Those who labor In the
earth are the chosen people of God. II lie
ever had a chosen people, whose breasts
He has made His peculiar deposit for SUD
stantial and genuine virtue. 1t Is the To-
Gus in which He keeps alive that sacred
fire which otherswise might escape from
the face of the earth. Corruption OF NOR
ais in the mass of cultivators Is phe-
nomenon of which no age nor nation mas
furnished an example.
AS to capacity to decide question OF
morals properly, MI JEFFERSON saiu'
estate a moral case to q plowman and a
professor. The former will decide 1t as
well and often better than the latter, be-
cause he has not been led astray by arti-
fetal rules" And when he looked around
him for security against harmful brltisn
influence in the United States, the sage
of Monticello said: Il find 1t In the VIDE
spread of our agricultural citizens, IN
their unsophistieated minds, their lnoe-
pendence and their power, II caileu on
| to maintain the principles which severed
| MS from England" This Is the class or
| citizens that the money-changers and
gamblers of Wall street are presumng TO
| instruct as to their moral duty! VINO
| can imagine Thomas Jefferson telling
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| to maintain the principles which severed
| us from England-that it is their moral
| duty to vote for the subsection OF this
country to policy dictated by England?
| Their Attitude Toward "Trusts."
There were those in Mr. Jefferson's day
who desired the establishment by law of
| a particular form of Christianity in this
| country, a sort Of religious trust, in the
| interest of a particular sect. For the
maintenance of this special form of re-
L. rNtsnt TO. hn a va
| who favored it were opposed to Mr.. JEFF
| ferson because they believed he would
| oppose their schemes for the enactment
| of a law that would in anywise abrldge
| the freedom of religion. And they be-
| lieve rightly" said the great apostle of
| freedom and true democracy, for have
| sworn upon the altar of God eternal hos
| tility against every form of tyranny over
| the mind of man." The religious trust
| was not created, but other trusts, that
| have come into existence since then, are
| today tyrannizing over the minds and
| bodies of men, and standing in the very
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