Birmingham state herald., 1897-04-14

dear to all true democrats, "Old Hickory the hero of New Orleans, "The War Horse of the Hermitage" Andrew Jack son, and the brave young commoner, the Great Tribute of the People" William J. Bryan
 Hon. Tennant Lomax-"The Principles Of Jefferson-The Creed of Liberty" MT. Chairman and Fellow Democrats:
 No celebration of an anniversary of Jefferson would be complete without recalling his immortal declaration of principles, for, without the principles of Jeiferson, as the matchless and superb Bryan has said. democracy is a corpse" What are those principles? Hear me as recite them: 'The ultimate aim of all government is to do equal and exact justice to all men; to establish peace; to promote commerce and honest friend ships with all nations, and to form en- tahghng alliance with none; to secure the people In all their rights, and to pre- serve the government in it's constitution al ylgor; to exercise jealous care of the I-ght Of elections by the people; to teach an absolute acquiescence in the decisions or the majority; to inculcate the suprem- acy of the civil over the military author lty' to honestly pay the public debt and to sacredly preserve the public faith to encourage agriculture, and commerce as lts handmaid; and to preserve the free dom Of religion, the freedom of the press, and the freedom of the person." These are the cardinal doctrines of democratic faith and the very breath of life of free government. They are the fundamental truths of tn democracy we represnt, as promulgated in its latest declaration of faith al Chicago, and they are eternal and immortal. In very truth they were first enunciated by the Man of Calvary in his declaration of the equality of man in the scheme of Divine redemption, taught to the ultimate destruction c< the an- atf 1t-nf ffgT,r New Dispensation, thundered by Luther and Calvin and Wesley in protest against the proffigacy and arrogance of the es- tabliShed order ( the days of the new birth of free thought on the continent and in England, pledged under the sig net of kingly recognition at Runnymede, baptized in the blood of royalty at Lon don in the days of Cromwell and at Paris in the time of the French revolution pro- claimed amid the booming of cannon and the peal of the Liberty Bell in America in 1776, sealed beyond revocation in the blood of Packenham before the cotton bale breast works at New Orleans, and written beyond the power of man to eradicate in the constitution of our gerat republic when constitutional government was launched in America, and thus were eternally and immutably established. as the chart and guide of free government on earth
 In the little more than 100 years since that time. love for these principles which means love of liberty, has wrested Mex ico and most of Central and South Amer ica from the thralldom of European dom- nation, and devoted almost the entire western hemisphere to the cause of free dom; this it Is which but yesterday made true and deadly the aim of the sturdy Dutch riflemen in the South African re- public against the rapacious march of English aggression; today, their spirit 1pH ni of ri of the Antilles" nerves the arm and fires the so oul of the patriot. to those deeds of valor and endurance which shall soon erect a Caban republic upon the ruins of Span jsn torture and oppression; and their counterpart on the shores of the Maditer- as1as'an has made Greece once more if HfS the Land of Scholars at least the ''fllirse of Arms" against the allied forces of monarchical Europe, and caused her glorious flag, once again the emblem of liberty, to become the admiration of the world.
 And, as time rolls on, and people after people shall adopt them, and country after country shall throw off the yoke of monarchy, and enroll under the flag of republican government, we may confi- dently expect the coming of time when the eternal principles of democracy will be universally accepted, and the people of all nations will live under the benign and beneficient influences of democratic government, and then, man, free, equal and self-governing may, at last, exclaim with truth, that
 Dangers troubled night is o'er
 And the Star of Peace returned"
 RESOLUTIONS.
 Hon. R.sJ. Lowe then introduced the following resolutions:
 Be it resolved, That Wm. J. Bryan is the impersonation of Jeffersonian de mocracy; be it further
 Resolved, That Wm. J. Bryan is the logical and only candidate of the demo- cratic party for 1900.
 The resolution was adopted mid rouS- ing cheers and by standing vote.
 W. K. Terry-"The Immortality of the Influence of Jefferson"
 MT. Terry said:
 There seems to be some silent law of progress, which decrees that each ns- tion shall develop some distinctive chs . great sum of human advancement. Thus Greece developed and bequeathed to the world philosophy and art-Rome law, and Egypt letters.
 In each nation here and there some son greater than the rest perceived great truths, wrought them out and gave them to the people to develop.
 The distinctive characteristic-the gift which this great country Of ours adds to the progress of civilization is democracy and the man, who more than all others perceived the great truths underlying democracy and gave them to the people to develop, was Thomas Jefferson.
 So great is the impress that a single man may make upon his times, his peo- pie and the course of his nation, that a certain school of philosophers has substi- tuted for immortal life, the immortality of influence.
 We may reject the doctrine of the phil- osophers and still believe in the immor- tality of influence, for there can be no doubt but that the influence of Jeffer- son will live forever.
 It may be true that little Cuba looks in vain across the narrow sheet of water that separates her from her powerful neighbor for the spirit of the author of the 'dec.ara ton of independence and won- ders If it abides anywhere in our depart ment of state. whether or not it is indulg- ing in Rip Van Wrinkle sleep.
 However that may be. the press of our country, with freedom and independ- ence that is admirable, daily man!fests the immortal influence of Jefferson
 Illustrious disciples, like the man Will liam J. Bryan, whose portrait hangs there, as with boldness and vigor he de- nounces the colossal trusts, that are such menace to our civilization, remindse us that the soul of the sage of Monticello