The Washington bee., 1897-12-04
THOMAS JEFFERSON

WAS THE SUBJECT OF EDITOR FOR
TUNE S ADDRESS BEFORE THE BETH
Ell LITERARY.
That was distinguished audience
that greeted Editor T. Thomas Fortune
at the Bethel Literary on last Tuesday
night. Editor Fortunes subject was
Thomas Jefferson, and, among 9TH
er things, he said:
Mr.. President, Ladies and Gentle
men: 1t is relief to turn away, if but
for moment, from the aches and the
heart-burnings of coEtemporaneous
men and policies to the men and the
policies of other times, to forget the
present in brief survey of the past,
to forget that we are making history in
study of the work of those who have
made history. 1t is a common COM
plant that the men of our times do not
bear any comparison to those of the
past; that the issues which engage our
attention and determine our course of
action are tame and commonplace as
compared to those of other periods of
our history. But it is fact, | believe.
that each generation produces its own
men and its own issues, and that they
will be regarded with admiration by
the students and patriots of the future
as we now regard those of the past.
anding close to mountain it is i'm
possible to estimate its vastness and
its grandeur. 'Tis distance lends en-
chantment to the view" The further
away we get from the past the more
accurately are we able to estimate the
issues hich were living and the men
who shaped them fer the veal or the
woe of the Nation.
Biography is history. History is BIZ
ography. They do not deal with alb
stractions, but with accomplished facts.
The decline and fall of the Roman EN-
pire and the rise and expansion of the
United States; the decadence of Spain
and the growth of Great Britain-this
is history, the record Of human effort
the biography of individual success
and failure. Marius in the ruins Of
Carthage, more desolate than the
shadows of vanished glory that dark
ened the African skies; Washington
at Yorktown, standing upon the pros
trate form of crushed tyranny, hope
tul that a great and free government
would arise out of the victories he hao
achieved; Napoleon chained at St
Helena and Grant unfettered at Apo
mattox-Europe released from the iror
grasp of one all-masterful tyrant, anc
parcelled out among dozen, with al
of the CorSican'S vices and fon of his
virtues, with all of his weakness anc
little of his strength; America, freec
from the curse of human slavery anC
threatened diSme memberment-the biog
raphy of the man, the master of the
hour, is the history of his race, Of hi:
nation, of its aspiration after the sub
lime and the good, after the enlarge
ment of human liberty or after forging
the fetters that doom the helot to hi.
fate.
Man is the unit of the world:
thought and action. He is the centra
and determining force in the econonI,
of Nature. Pope rightly says: "Th,
proper study of mankind is man.
Ralph Waldo Emerson says: "Naturt
never rhymes her children, nor make:
two men alike" AS the bolt of light
ming that darts from the heavens anc
zigzags its way to earth, SO with tn,
genius that darts from the womb o
nature and begins to work out its mis-
sion among men, no man can tell tn,
course it will take, what wonders i
will perform, before it has burnt it
fierce fire to ashes.
The multitudes of mankind wht
have lived and hoped, who have de
SPARED and died, who have built mon
uments that sentinel the highways o
time, or, like the Goth and the Vandal
have left a broad pathway Of destruc
ton and ruin, committing to fame o
flood or base uses the priceless accu
mulated treasures of centuries Q
thought and effort, the legitimate her
itage of mankind-these countless mul
titudes, from the plains of Shinar t
the plains of Waterloo, have no m0nu
, ments. They are "unknelled, Union
ored and unsung." AS multitude
they sank into the oblivion from whic
they were drawn by the Supreme Al
chitect. disappearing like mornin
mists pierced by the rays Of the sur
leaving no memorial of their passing
Well might the sweet singer Of Israe
exalt the horn of the Everlasting an
weep over the frailty and mutability c
human kind. To all intents and pul
poses, the multitudes who have pee
pied the earth were created simply t.
l illustrate the genius of an individua
here and there-some universal poe
like Homer, "the blind old bard c
Scio's Rocky Isle;" some militar
scourge like Alexander the Great. VIII
conquered the world but could nc
conquer himself; some orator like De
!, mosthenes, whose eloquence was
greater defense to Athens than 6 a
army with banners - some Frankli
who captured the lightning and som
Edison Tho harnessed it to the uses {
man; some Shakespeare to whom al
ticulate and inarticulate, physical an
material nature, was an open book
some Napoleon, to crush the divin
right Of kings and aristocracy an
priesthood, and to reassert the eterna
truth that all flesh is clay, whethe
clothed in purple and fine linen or Ii
i. rags and tatters, whether it sits On
throne or grovels in mud hut, for h
was the worlds greatest democrat
who was compelled, but with no NOR