Birmingham state herald. (Birmingham, Ala.) 1895-1897, 1896-10-18
Campaign of 1900 Reflected in
That of 1896.
SAME TORRENTS OF ABUSE
Same Thunders from the Pulpit and the Same
Visions of Sef-Anointed SeerS.
And the Result


preachers of the east against the present
candidate of the democratic party for
the office of president is striking repeti-
ton of the campaign waged in the same
quarter against another democratic can
didate for the same office at an carrier
period Of the country's history rms
other democratic candidate was Thomas
Jefferson, and the annals of that carrier
campaign and its result should serve 10
show what sort of consideration should
be given to the predictions of disaster IN
the event of the election of Mr.. Bryan
and to the denunciations hurled against
him from the press platforms ana pun
pits of the eastern states. They Will at
least show that the spirit OF fanatlcal
Vituperation of those who oppose thelt
notions of what is right in politics ana
morals was as rampant among the peo-
pie of New England in 1900, ana as re-
voting to decency is 1t is in 1870, OF as
it was when, in the same section, the
floodgateS of vtuperation and calumny
were opened against Daniel Webster, ana
he was foully charged with most revolt
ing vices because he kept his oath TO
stand by the constitution of his country.
Alexander Hamilton
was Jefferson's chief political rival, and
in a newspaper article which historians
with prophetic vision, how Mr. Jefferson,
if elected, would subVert the constitution,
oVerturn the government and ruin the
country. He would begin by turning
every federalist out of office down to the
remotest postmaster. Then he would
tumble the financial system of the coun-
try into ruin at one stroke, which would
of necessity stop all payments OF inter-
est on the public debt and bring on uni
versal bankruptcy and beggery. Next he
would dismante the navy and thus give
such free course to privateering that
every vessel which floated from our
shores would be plundered or captured.
And, since every source of revenue would
be dried up, the government would no
longer be able to pay the pensions OIL the
SCARED veterans of the revolution, VINO
would be seen starving in the streets or
living on the cold and precarious sup
plies of charity. Soon the unpaid officers
of the government would resign, ana
counterfeitlng would be practiced with
impunity."
s'Ihe Campaign Liar"
says Parton in his Life of Jefferson
mounted the pulpit. In the guise of the
Rev. Cotton Mather Smith of Connecticut
he stated that Mr.. Jefferson had gained
his estate by robbery and fraud-yea
even by robbing a widow and fatherless
children of 10000, entrusted to him by
the dead fathers will All of this can be
proved said the reverend campaigner."
Another and the most frantic charge
from the pulpit was that Mr. JEFFERSON
was one of body of conspirators whose
object, in the words of one or his accus-
ers was to exterminate not only Chris
tianity, but national religion itself, and
to eradicate all belief of God, or the
immortality of the SOUL and Of moral OBJ.
iigation-to root out of the world civil
and domestic government, the right OF
property. marriage, natural aHecIloh,
n
destroy all that was excellent, to sup
plant the virtues and in their stead TO
establish the most gross and brutlsn
manners and the most barbarous and
shameless immortality" In describing this
alleged body of conspirators against God
and mankind, one of the ablest of the
anti-Jefferson writer's of the time said
that 1.-The evidence of Mr.. Jeffersons be-
ing in heart as we'll as in fact one of than
aody was complete and decisive His
heart" said this writer, "is prodigy OF
baseness and villainy.'
Warning from the Pulpit.
The Rev. DR.. John Mason was the
great preacher of that day in New York.
and seeing in the candidacy of Mr.. JEFF
ferson conspiracy to overthrow the
Christian religion, he published a pam
phlet entitled "The Voice of Warning to
Christians on the Ensuing Election"
from which it appeared that the reverend
doctor believed that "murrain upon our
cattle, a famine upon our land, cleanness
of teeth in our borders, pestilence IN our
cities yea, even the sword to bathe ltselt
in the blood of our sons" would be nght
Affections in comparison with the diretul
evils that would flow from the election or
Mr. jefferson, and he fervently prayed
that God would save the country from
such calamity; and the orthodox clergy
of New England warned their congrega-
lions that it would be the signal for
breaking down the pulpits and the burn
ing up OF B1bleS.
OF that orthodox clergy the worst that
Mr.. Jefferson said was that they had
S'perverted the purest religion ever
preached to man into mystery and jar
gon unintelligible to all mankind;" and
that was said in a private letter to a
friend, expressing what he really thought
about the religion of Christ as preached
by Christ himself.
A Torrent of Abuse.
And thus went on the campaign of de-
traction and SANDER. ut would be tedi-
GUS" says a historian of those times, to
describe the opposition Offered to Mr..
Jefferson The strife which then ragged
was of a nature the vehemence or when
has seldom been equaled. Mr.. Jefferson
was accused of having betrayed his ma
tive state into the hands of the enemy on
two occasions while at the head OF the
government by a cowardly abandonment
of Richmond on the sudden invasion or
AfnOIu, ana subsequently Ny lS 10
flight from Monticello on the approach of
Tarleton. He was charged with being the
Hbeler of Washington and the retainer of
mercenary libelers to blast the reputation
of the father of his country. He was ac-
cused of implacable hostility to the con-
stitution of employing foreign scrbblers
to write it down, and of aiming at the
annihilation of all law, order and govern
ment, and the introduction of general
anarchy and Righteousness. He was
characterized as an atheist and the pa
iron of French atheists, whom he encour-
aged to migrate to this country; as a
demagogue and disorganizer, indus
triously sapping the foundations of re-
ligion and virtue and paving the way for
the establishment of a legalized system
of infidelity and libertinism. 'Decency,'
adds the writer here quoted, would re-
volt were we to'pursue the catalogue into
that region of invectves employed to Will
fly his private character"
And the man against whom this INJECT
i've was directed--against whom these re-
voting and slanderous accusations were
made, was the author of the Declaration
of independence and the founder of that
university of which William H. Seward
said: The plan and system of educa-
ton in this institution are superior to
+l,oSa IL, aDU other American collepe wit