Amador ledger., 1900-09-07
THE GHOST OF IMPERIALISM.

The Democratic party believes in
ghosts. 1t knows there aren't any. and
yet from the very birtR of that party
the disciples of jefferson have been cry.
ing with shrill voices: "The goblins
will get We if ye don't watch. out :"
They have prof1ted by the cry and hope
again to profit by it in the forthcoming
campaign.
When Thomas Jefferson returned to
his native land from having represented
the old confederacy at the court of Yer
sailles it was to bring home head full
academic disquisition in relation to the
theory of social contract with which, liz
preparation for the French revolution,
France was then seething. He ca,ue to
take the first place in Washington
cabinet.
In the northern colonies. whore gov
ernment was purely Democratic, the
leaders of pablo sentiment were dis
trustful of the ability of the whole peo-
pie to govern themselves wisely and
well, but in the southern colonies, where
government was patrician in character
(the real power being confined to a few
first families) the academic instruction
of Rousseau and his school of French
essayists had taken deep root, and
Thomas jefferson was it's apostle
And so it came about that political
parties began to form in our newly or
ganized nation with Washington and
Hamilton favoring a strongly central
lied form of government, with suffrage
more or less restricted; and jefferson
standing Theoretically but never prac-
tically) for weak central government.
But jefferson had no party back of
him while Washington and Hamilton
had large and powerful constituency,
and party he must have or the meas
ure of his ambition could not be real
lied, so he straightway fell to organiz-
ing the Democratic party of American
history.
Before he could organize party he
must excite the public mind, and the
best way to excite was to frighten, and
the best way to frighten was with
ghost, for i'll those days people believed
in ghosts and were afraid of them.
Jefferson's ghost was the ghost of
monarchy. just as Bryan's ghost is the
ghost of Imperialism. Jefferson knew
that he could not frighten anyone by
simply declaring that Hamilton and
Washington favored a more highly CEN
tralized form of government than he
regarded as wise, so he suffered his hair
to grow long, learned how to make pen
and ink sketches of skulls and cross
bones and began to declare that Wash
ington and Hamilson (but especially
Hamilton), were planning to establish
monarchy on the ruins of the young re-
public. He knew better but, consum-
mate politician that he was, he knew
that he must keep that horrible shape
before the eyes of the people if he
would possess that political power for
which he thirsted, and his political cum
ming was justified by the results, The
Democratic party was born of a mon.
archical nightmare, and in our day a
political zealot is striving to deliver the
nation of a new tangled, uni edigreed
political organization to be brought
forth in the throes of imperialistic lin
jams.
AS there was no proper warrant for
the monarchical misgivin3s of Jeffer-
son, SO there is now no justification in
fact for the ghost of Imperialism which
William Jennings Bryan has conjured
up to frighten timid folk into spasms Of
conservatism. Outside of the asylums
there probably is not an imperialist in
America. Hence unreal moczery
Thou hast no purpose but to do politics