The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-11-24

once the prophet and the statesman
| general of democracy and Americanism
against the aristocratic, pessimistic,
Europeanizing proclivities of the mass
of intellectual leaders in that day.
Like Jackson and Lincoln later, he
stands for new type-this first Amer
| lean. His engaging personality is not
/ to be portrayed by bold strokes-only
| by delicate pencilings. These fine shad-
ings of character seemed, of course,
10 hostile critics to imply hypocrisy or
| weakness and he was necessarily mis-
understood by his adversaries- in
! tellectual aristocrat and apostle of So
cial democracy; this theorist of Wild
est ideals, but most astute politician
upon all immediate practical problems;
| this shy man, averse TO conflict, but a
popular dictator.i Naturally federal
list pamphleteers found much to cry
| out at, even had they not descended to
that mire of filth and falsehood with
which the silent Jefferson was bespat-
tered as is never any public man in our
better hammered era. In person Jeffer-
son was tall-6 feet 21s inches-of Wig
orous, but loose-jointed frame. with
sandy hair and irregular, freckled. sun
ny face. He was an athletic, reckless
horSeman, the friend of science and
philosophy, an enthusiastic farmer, a
correspondent of the most famous Sa-
wants of Europe. 1t is not hard to pic
ture him, by the description of con-
temporaries, sitting bumped up on one
hip. with neglected dress and slippers
down at the heel talking necessarily
with rambling charm, or with methodi-
cal industry with his ready pen record
ing minutest weather details. drawing
up a neat table to show the dates of the
mn faf CA1 faH
vegetables in the Washington markets
during his residence there. reporting ju-
dicial decisions, devising rules for par
liamentary procedure, directing with
gentlest suggestion the politics of a
distant state. discussing with French or
English celebrity the latest discovery
in science or inditing some other form
Of that voiunlinous and delightful cor
respondence which well earns for the
author the title of the greatest Ameri-
can letter writer.
Jefferson was born in 1743 upon the
estate TO which he was to give the name
Monticello Qittle mountaiD). The ear
lest American Jefferson of the English
yoem2n class sat in the first represen-
tative assembly upon this continent in
1919; and on his mothers side jefferson
was descended from one of the proudest
cavalier families. His education at
William and Mary college was as good
as America afforded. Though still young
he practiced law with eminent success
and was rapidly augmenting his pri-
yate fortune when he was called into
public service which was to occupy his
next forty years.
Early Revolution Days-The Declar-
alton of Independence.
Already in 1865 the youth of % had
fctn xrv:fh rHan l-xr
the doorway While his older friend,
Henry, in that most bloody debate. as
Jefferson styled il, against AL the
cyphers of aristocracy,' rang the
alarm bell for the continent" Four
years later Jefferson himself appears in
the assembly, and when that body
shortly dissolved. because of its gem
erous protest against England's treat
ment of Massachusetts,, he is one of
the deputies who assemble at the Ra-
leigh tavern under the lead of Wash
ington to form that early non-importa-
ton league In 1878 he was named
upon tie first Virginia interc o,onial cor
committee. when his col
ony inaugurated that most important
plan for united action. During the next
two stormy years we see him drafting
state papers, chairman OF the
committee of safety for his country, and
delegate TO the various revolutionary
provincial conventions. until in IT'S he
appears at Philadelphia as a member
of the second continental congress.
Reforms In Virginia and War Gov
ernor.
The next year Jefferson is back in
the Virginia assembly. He had written
10 Franklin regarding the new state
that the people seem to I
have laid aside monarchical and taken
up republican government with as
much ease as would have attended their
throwing off an old and putting on a
new suit of clothes" But the change ,
was not yet realized or completed. and |