The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-11-08
JEFFERsoN's SURROUNDINGS.
John Il. Dye Describes Colonial Vii
Einia i'm ~ Lecture.

John II. Dye Describes Colonial Vir-
Einia in ~ Lecture.
Mr.. John r. Dyes lecture at Plymouth
Church last night, in the series being given
there on Sunday evenings, was on Thomas
Jefferson" Mr.. Dye devoted considerable
attention to the environments of this great
statesman.
Speaking of colonial Virginia, mr. Dye
said:
mo community in history of equal
numbers has ever produced in one genera
ton so many men of the highest char
acter and ability colonial Virginia in the
last half of the last century. There were
not more than 100000 whites in the colony
when Jefferson was born-little more than
in Marion county to-day. They We're scat
tered over their plantations between the
Blue ridge and the sea, with no cities, few
merchants, no ships and little commerce.
Virginia was reproduction in the new
world of the conditions of English life in
of African slavery. Virginia was not New
England; it was old England in the new
world. 1t represented all classes of the
English people. They had brought with
them the laws, institutions, the manners
and customs of the mother country. They
had a state church, the law of primogeni-
and African slavery. 1t was land of in
equality. They had lived in peace from the
time of Bacon's rebellion against Berkeley
for seventy years, and the spirit of indi-
vidualsm which has always characterized
the English race had grown and strength
6ned in the freedom and isolation of the
new world The Virginia landlord ac-
quired a sense of his Importance and re-
sponsibility in the community, and lofty
dignity OF character and a high sense of
honor, which has not been surpassed among
men. Besides agriculture the entire inter
est and intellectual life of the whole COM
munity was centered upon law and poll
tics and the science of government. Vir-
ginia unconsciously had trained her sons
like athletes for the great struggle which
1.-The basis of that unique society was
overthrown by the repeal of the laws of
primogeniture, by the abolition of the state
church, by the economic disturbances of
the revolution, and the new state was ar
rested in it's growth and development by
slavery, as Jefferson and Mason predicted.
But colonial Virginia accomplished it's
work The part it bore in the establish
ment of government by the people, of the
the reverent admiration of freemen, while
freedom lasts.
s''These men produced no literature, but
they gave US the Declaration of Independ-
ence, the Virginia Bill of Rights, drawn by
George Mason, the Constitution of the
United States, of which James Madison was
Jefferson in 1884, and enacted three years
later, Jefferson's inaugural message and
the legal opinions of John Marshall. They
wrote no fiction, they accomplished facts
They made history, they did not write it,
They made no contributions to science. ex-
cept TO the science of government. They
left no works of art. but bore the chief part
in building the Constitution of the United
States, which John Fiske calls the Par
ITO the student of American institutions
and social progress, Crawfords equestrian
statue of Washington and the group of his
revolutionary colleagues about it is the
most interesting group in this planet.
When look upon it, remember that the
colony which produced these men in one
generation was one of thirteen colonies.
governed by a crazy king beyond the sea
who even refused to listen to their petition
to abolish the african slave trade | re-
member that when these men were born,
a little more than century ago. every foot
of land in North and South America was
held and governed by the crowned heads of
Europe and that to-day the right of self
government is acknowledged in every COM
munity on the two continents except Cuba,
where Spain, after the cruel tyranny of
centuries, is late relaxing her palsed grasp;
that England herself has reversed her
policy and abandoned her political maxims
of the time of George III. and that Canada
is in fact, a self-governed republic
I remember that Washington, the GEN.
tral figure of this group, when Boston was
beleaguered by British troops in 1774 Of
fered to raise 1000 men at his own expense
70 go to her relief. see him modestly ac-
cepting the position of Ommander-in-chief
OF the Continental army and renouncing all
compensation except return of his out
lays. | follow him through the doubtful
Struggle or seven years from Boston to
Yorktown; see him president of the con-
vention that framed the Constitution; first
President of the Republic-the just brave.
without reproach and beyond praise. see
Madison, learned above all his followers in
the history of government, with a. genius
for building institutions which fit the needs
of a people, modest, sincere, gentle, per-
suasive; John Marshall, the ideal judge Of
the Supreme Court, and Thomas Jefferson,
and think how different the history of the
United States and of the free institutions
would be if the work Of these men was left
out.
II think how different the State of In
diana, with its two and one-half millions
would be if these men were alive in its
the conditions of our country if its leading
men possessed the moderation, and wis
dom, and diSinterested patriotism of this
immortal group. l recall the history of
states. ancient and modern and 1 look in
vain for any group of statesmen who will
compare with these in lofty dignity of
character, unflinching integrity, a high
sense of honor and disinterested devotion to
the interests of humanity. In this group
Jefferson stood only second TO Washing