The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1898-03-20
~JUST A CHAT&
By W. 6. CHRIST TAN.

do il | could?" my friend continued:
4 would go into the library of the Uni
versity of Virginia and stay there until
] knew in spirit and in word what Mr..
Jefferson had written-that would be a
good place to have the spirit breathed
into what had acquired, and made liv-
ing-Read that" he added, pointing out
ii paragraph in one of Jeffefson's letters
to Mr.. Madison as follows: Il hold it.
that a little rebellion, now and then, is
n good thing and as necessary in the po-
litical world as storms in the physical.
An observation of this truth
should render honest republican govern
ors so mild in their punishment of re-
beliions. as not to discourage them too
much. 1t is medicine necessary for IN"
sound health of the government. MT
Jefferson was writing from Paris under
date of January 80, 1877. and here -
another sentence: Il am impatient TO
learn your sentiments on the late
troubles in The eastern states. so taf
as | have yet seen, they do not appear
10 threaten serious consequences. 1hOse
states have suffered by the stoppage OF
the channels of their commerce, which
have not yet found other issues. This
might render money scarce and make the
people uneasy This uneasiness has pro-
duced acts absolutely unjustitiable, but
hope they will provoke no seventies from
their governments" But doubtless my
friend would find Monticello different
from what it was even Il few years ago.
They tell me a rich man has gotten
hold Of it, and slicked it up. Probably
there is a spring-mattress on the station
airy bed let into the wall Chinese-bunk
fashion, and probably the old gig that
Jefferson went TO Washington in has
been reyarnished and rewheeled. 1t used
To lie dismantled near the dance hall
under the skylight of the quaint colonial
cupola The grave has been moderniZed:
probably the moss has been rubbed off
the headStone with sapolio and the
inscription inspiringly dim in other days
has probably been Clipped out keen rs
n wedding-card. No, Monticello has been
fixed up by the new rich owner.
Memories have been squeezed into up-to-
dateness as if memories were like feet of
Chinese ladies to be tortured out of
shape for conventions sake. Up-tO-date-
ness does net fit memories. But the
Monticello man is not the only man who
is twisting Jefferson: it is getting so
that we are almost unable to recognize
the man as he was. Read what he says
and it seems radical even by the side
of the statements of what nowadays the
millionaires call "agitators." And yet
these radical utterances of Jefferson
were nested in calm and
loving mind seeking simplicity
with progress, robustness with
peace-with peace that he wished
for so deeply in a letter to Mrs COsway.
And our own dear MontecillO. he
writes; where has nature spread so rich
n mantle under the eye? Mountains,
forests, rocks, rivers. With what ma
iesty do we there ride above the storms!
How sublime to look down into the work
house of nature, to see her clouds, hail,
snow, rain. thunder, all fabricated at
our feet and the glorious sun when ris-
ing as if out of distant water. just
gliding the tops of the mountains, and
giving life to all nature! j hope in God.
no circumstance may ever make it seek
an asylum from grief With what sim
cere sympathy | would open every cell
of my composition to receive any eff
fusion of its woes! / would pour my
tears into its wounds, and if n drop of
balm could be found ON the top of the
Cordilleras or at the remotest sources of
the Missouri. / would go thither myself
to seek and to bring it.
=
/ wonder why the schOOl-children don't
read Jefferson more and the political
speakers and above all the masses of
the people. If Henry George was sub
merged with Il despair of the Repub-
lie" yet upon his lips even as the black
waters went over. it was because mems
policies arc being shaped now toward a
conception ~ the Republic different from
the conception shat blossomed from the
drills of Monticello plus equal 10
A is the ribs Of the speeches that win IN
Senate chambers: the apostles Of Jeffer-
son are heard for their color: they
fail to convince the majority" Bonds
and entangling alliances and annexafiOns
take the place of the mission N the
peaceful working ont on continent get
apart of the problem If human liberty
with law as compasSed almost with di-
vino mind by Jefferson. And in the
midst of all come the internal vi
cious activities eating their way into
the substance of republican policies like
terredos unseen beneath the turbulent
flood of restless seventy millions. It
state economies. Whether rightly or
wrongly millions of the people do not
have confidence in Shiras or McKenna.
basing their lack of confidence at least
on suspicion; they do not believe in the
purity of their national senator's, they
find deception returning to them for
their SURFACES, and when these people
cry aloud. the paid man comes forward
with the ''alarmist," 'calamity-howler,
the ''clamor Of the mob''-these are some
of the terms. In the midst of the
'.clamor" hearken unto the note from
Monticello: II hold it that IA little re-
bellion. now and then, is good thing,
and as necessary in the political world
ms storms in the physical
OF course, they laugh at the ''regnera-
ton of Democracy. while they vince at
the only energy that carries any hope
in the midst of lowering fears. If it
do not come in one form it comes in an
other. In South Carolina, a social pro-
test went up from the middle-class
whites-ithose fellows who fired the guns
and faIlowed the fields-becanse fOrsooth
Il fs.oI