The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1900-09-11
DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL TICKET,
FOR PRESID~N-.
WILLIAM J. BRYAN.
FOR VICE PRESIDENT.
ADLAl E. STEVENSON.
A GLANCE AT JEFFERSON.

1t is a good way TO go back to first
principles and to return to the deliv-
erances of the great and wise men OF
the past. We have just read the First
Inaugural address, delivered in Wash
ington, on the 4th of March 1901 by
that greatest political genius of our
country, Thomas Jefferson, Of Vir-
ginia. 1t would not fill two of our
columns. 1t made a very profound
impression al the time. Henry Adams,
who was endowed with greater talents
and more fairness than falls to lot of
many of the authors and politicians
of New England, in, his History of
the United States" a work of superior
merit. says of the inaugural"
This address, for a long time as
we'll known as the Declaration of In
dependence, is one of the few state
papers which should have lost little
of it's interest by age AS the starting
point of a powerful political party, 1t
was a standard by which future move
ments were measured; n it went out
Of fashion only when its principles
were universally accepted or thrown
aside"
The historian displays fine ability
and a~cuteness in his elaborate por-
trait he draws of Mr.. Jefferson. 1t is
an attempt to be just and discriminate
ing. but is plainly affected by h sur
~roundings of the writer. 1t has much
of depreciation and even is severe in
condemnation in places. 1t is the New
England pen essaying the very diff
cult task of presenting a sketch of the
greatest opponent of New England
greed and New England ideas. We
make some graphic and impressive ex-
tracts:
According to the admitted stand
ards of greatness, Jefferson was a
great man. After all deductions on
which his enemies might choose to in
:SiSt, his character could not be denied
elevation, versatility, breadth, insight
and delicacy; but neither as a pOliti-
clan nor as a political philosopher did
he seem at ease in the atmosphere
which surrounded him. AS a leader
of democracy, he appeared ~singularly
out of place. The rawness
of political life was an incessant tor
ture to him, and personal attacks made
him keenly unhappy. His true delight
was in ar intellectual life of science
and art. To read, write, speculate in
new lines OIL UnOuSnl 10 Keep abreast
of the intellect of Europe, and to feed
upon Homer and Horace were pleas
ureS more to his mind tina any to be
found in a public assembly. He a
some knowledge of mathematics n
a little acquaintance with classical
art; but he fairly revealed in what he
believed to be beautiful, and his writ
ings often betrayed subtitle feeling for
artistic form-a sure mark of intellect
ual He Shrank from
whatever was rough or coarse, and his
yearning for sympathy was almost
feminine. That such a man should have
Ventured upon the stormy ocean OF
politics was surprising, the more be-
cause he was no orator, and owed
nothing to any magnetic influence of
7Oice or person. He was a
list, believing that men could man.
y = their own salvation without the
~ , of a state church. Prone to in
lesl ton, he sometimes generalized
ut careful analysis. He was a
Nl1D I, prepared to risk the fate of
q on the chance of reasoning
hanfln II certain in it's details. His
ar tIoL lent was sunny and sanguine,
-empeTSh atrabilious philosophy of
md was intolerable to him.
Ne" Ene riously vulnerable, for he
ne Mds = a page without exposing
seFooHn w. tack. He was superficial
nlnlseii 10 'ge. Inc a martyr to the
II LIE
disease of omL
NTH IL possible detractions
raauv a User, broader, great
:. mors useful ma n n any states
man of New Englaa III mas eve oeen
able to show himself 10 De. HIS writ
;nps are a monument 40 MS foresight
ND wisdom. and ne left his impress
,,non his country as no statesman
since his day, not even 1he
oyAr--ated Lincoln who desired, as ne
told Seward and Stanton, to have all
the old men and women and chlloreh
of the south slaughtered by the ne
groes.
Mr.. Jefferson had great and dlstln-
guished qualities. He was not lhIai-
nble or omniscient or perfect. He mao
detracting faults. But he was pure
and wise and true, and believed IN ule
American people. His
was short, calm, modest, simple, con-
.ciIiatory and judicious. Mr.. Adams
saws in his history that is "a literary
work. it possessed a certain charm N
style peculiar to Jeffersonian ldeallty
calculated to please the ear OF later
generations forced to task their Ut
most powers in order to carry the COM
MEX trains Of their thought. The
chief object of the Address was to quiet
me passions which had been raised
by the violent agitation OF the past
eight years. Every interest OF the new
administration required that the ex-
treme Federalists should be dtsarmed'
-rbasr temper was such as to endanger
- administration and union"
Mark that statement that so eA0re
were the 'Federalists' that there was
hanger to the very "Union" then sc
young. Even in George washington
first term of four years New Eneiano