The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1898-09-09
JUDGE MAGUIRE's PROFESSIONALISM

none, and proceeded to define what he CONSIDERS
special privileges to be- Among them ne puts the
private ownership of land and seeks to spread abroad
the idea that the principles of Jefferson require the
confscation of ali lands so held.
Mcguire calls private landowners "aggressors and
"monopolists," who being Strong and cunning
have robbed 'the weak and undesigning This brings
up again the discussion of what Jefersonian Democ
racy means, and its definitions promise to be as
various as those given to the Virginia and Ken
lucky resolutions of 1898 and 1899
According to Judge Mcguire Jefersons principles
demand that landowners shall have their lands
fscated by the State without compensation
But is that what Jefferson meant? Did the author
of the Declaration of Independence consider the pr
vate ownership of land special privilege and there
fore to be prohibited? Can Judge Mcguire reason
ably deduce from the Jeffersonian motto such
meaning?
After Jefferson had written and signed the Decara
ton of independence he went home to Virginia and
there set up what may be fairly considered work
ing model OF system Of constitutional govern
ment He the Governor of the colony of Vr
gnia and instituted there all of the reforms and laid
all the foundations which he considered necessary
the perpetuity of representative republican govern
ment
He found in his native colony union of church
and state by which the civil law protected the tith
ing of the people for the maintenance of ecclesi-
astcal establishment. This he abolished, separating
church and state and putting all creeds exact
level to be supported by the voluntary contributions
OF those who accepted them.
He found in force the law of entail, by which the
landed estate of family held in its possession
from generation to generation, and by the twin law
OF primogeniture, descended to the Oldest son. leav
ing the rest of the children without landed estate;
and he abolished entail and primogenture.
Now this not only gave children equal in
heritance in the parental lands but permitted the sale
of all lands by lifting from such sale and transfer of
title the parayzing hand OF entail which forbade the
sale of landed estates.
After these reforms accomplished by Jefferson
in Virginia the special privilege of the family in an
entail of lands and of the oldest son in their descent
TO him exclusively had been abolished, and all men
had the equal right to property in land that they
had to property in other things-the right earn it
by their labor.
At the time he accomplished these reforms Mr.
Jefferson could have gone further had he believed
that private ownership of land was monopoly and
special privilege That he did not go further is the
best evidence that in his philosophy real and personal
property equal and man had an equal right to
either by paying for it.
Judge Mcguire bring no testimony from Jeffer-
sons reorganization of the government of Virginia
and his amendments of its Royal Charter to purge it
of tithing entail and primogeniture to help out his
pretense that the private Of land is monopo-
list and a cunning aggressor
In his speech of last February Judge Mcguire said
Land is just truly the common heritage of the
people as are the air and the sunlight = 1t is
therefore the function of democratic government to
prevent the interference OF the unscrupulously agpres
sive with the equal rights of their fellows,
and to determine by rules the
terms and conditions by which every citizens natural
right 20 the soil shall be exercised"
1t will be observed that his idea that the land is
incapable of private ownership is based on his anal
ogy between the land and the air and sunshine With
strange lack of logic he fails to see that he is COM
pairing things incompatible. His statement is:
"Air and sunshine and land are alike the common
heritage Of the people To part with the use of land
as air and sunshine used is fatal to the natural
right of life. Therefore it is the function of demo-
cratic government to prevent private ownership of
land"
Now let redstribute the elements in that state
nent.
Land, air and sunshine are alike the common heri-
tage of the people. To part with the use of sunshine
land and air used is fatal to the natural rights
of life. Therefore it is the function of democratic
government to prevent the private ownership of sum
shine. 1t is at that the Judges statement
nonsense because 1t treats as alike things that are
not alike
But moonshine as it is, it serves his purpose He
believes that majority of the voters of California
have invested their means in personal instead of real
property or have not earned either personal or real
property, therefore he believes that if his amendment
No. is adopted the voters who have bought personal
instead of real property and the voters who have not
bought any property at all will join and being in
majority, will vote to rob the men who have bought
land instead OF personal property and will confscate
and equally divide all property in lands
This scheme he calls Jeffersonian Democracy
when it is far from anything taught by Jefferson as
Governor of Virginia President of the United
States.
One count in Jeffersons Indictment of George III
in the Declaration of independence was that he pre-
vented the population f2the colonies and dscour
aged immigration by making too difficult the appro-
priaton OF land, meaning its subsection to private