The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-10-26

when LEE surrendered to GRANT at APP.
pomattox. The Republican party became
the custodian of the J~Cifcrsoninn faith, and,
in its measures for the reinstatement oil tho
Southern States with all their rights In the
Union, the fostering of industry, the resto-
ration of specie payments, the abolition rs
| far as possible of internal taxes, the extern
sion of territory, and the maintenance of
equal rights for all, it crystallized into law
the principles of JEFFERSON,
Historically, the abhorrent Chicago plat
form was the third attempted dcscCration
of the Jcfrcrsonian temple. The repudia-
tion of public and private financial obliga-
lions was promulgated brazonly on every
stump as a JefTcrsonian principle of faith
and practice. An unequal, and therefore
unjust and unconstitutional system Of
direct taxation was advocated as n cardi-
nal article Of Jefrersonian belief. The pros.
t~itution of the Federal judiciary was pro-
claimed rs n legitimate exercise OF cxccu-
tive prcrogative founded in Jcffcrsonian
precedent. The concentration of all power
in the Federal control was declared to
be n vital movement of the polity framed
by him who had created and put In effect.
i've operation, on the fundamental basis
of decentralization. the frecst and best
structure Of civil government that, up to
that day, had been devised or suggested
even in the Utopias of speculative philosD.
pliers. Again, at the end of thirty.six
years, the Republican party stood forth rs
the defender Of all the wise and patriotic
principles of JEFFERSON that it had incor-
porated in it's own political faith. BY it
the allied forces of national reputation,
private robbery, and populistic patcrnalism
were foiled in their efforts to seize the
Government and convert it into an en-
CINE Of tyranny such as the world has
not seen since the Dantons and the Marats
ruled France a century ago.
Now comes HENRY GEORGE with his ally,
Low, proclaiming the gospel of confiscntion
of private ownership of land, the most
colossal project of spoliation under tho
forms of law hat ever was born in the
brain of man. Could he put his predatory
theories into effect, and he has the faith
that he will be able so to do, it would be
the most gigantic robbery Of which his
tory has n record. Tho appropria-
tion of the whole soil of England by the
mailed barons of Normandy, when they
iiu IcluItu l EAlSiOtDdAOl pDIluiublDh W
the condition of serfs, combined with the
ruthless devastation of Ireland by OLIVER
CROMWELL, would be little more than petty
larceny in comparison with the stupendous
scheme of private pillage contemplated by
GEORGE and formulated by him into a sys.
TEN of political economy and paradcd as a
logical deduction from the teachings of
JEFFERSON.
Why, if there was one principle to which
JEFFERSON chung with an iron tenacity,
from which no argument could swerve and
no power move him, it was that of the
sanctity of the ownership of land. He
maintained it while n member of WASH
ISGToN's Cabinet, in his official opinions on
the eXtinguishment of Indian land titles.
When he became President he put that
cherished principle into operation by re.
sisting every attempt to take n foot of
ground from the Indians without adequate
compensation. The one unstaincd chapter in
the history of our treatment of the red man
is hat glorious one, written during JET.
PERSONS two Administrations, in which is
recorded the purchase from the aboriginal
inhabitants of this continent of the i'm
perial domain out Of which subsequent
ly were carved the wcalths of Hi
nois. Indiana, and other States. In all.
President JEFFERSON purchased nearly one
hundred millions of acres of land from the
Indians and, next to that of Louisiana,
thisw was the greatest territorial purchase in
history. JEFFERSON scorncd to rob the
conquered red man Of an acre of his land.
Mr.. HENRY GEORGE, pr~oclaiming himself TO
be n Jeffersonian Democrat, proposes to
rob his white fellow citizens of the value
of every foot of and they possess. Neither
CALHOUN nor DAVIS nor again BRYAN
has been guilty Of a grosser perversion of
Jeffersonian doctrine than has HENRY
GEORGE, not alone on the land question
but on every other question now publicly
disputed: taxation, free trade, govern
mental ownership of public works, the
minor question Of liquor selling, and the
all-controlling questions Of the currency
and the consolidation of power. There is
scarcely a fibre of genuine Jeffcrsonism in
his communistic teaching.
Again, az in 1860, the Republican party
holds and defends the deposit of the Jcffcr-
sonian faith, and no true Jeffersonian Demo.
crat can vote for GEORGE, Low, or the can
didate of Tammany Hall, without becom-
ing a traitor to his principles.