The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1900-01-14
THE TIMES OF JEFFERSON.
Glinpsss Of Politics and Pregnant Political
Struggle One Hundred Years Ago.
By William E. Dodd, Phi. D.

TO the Editor: just hundred years
ago there used to be seen about Phila-
delphia, a rather hard-favored, tall:
awkward man; man who was rarely
seen but OF horse back and then on his
way to and from a country home near
the city; he was extremely reluctant to
the hurry and scramble attendant III pc
Eitical life, had never made a public
speech IL man who knew more than any
man living of the men around him, their
needs and wants and fancies, yet nevt-
was seen I'M their midst. 1t was altOgeth-
er unique character-a Nirglnian
gentleman with all the praiudceS of a
Virginia gentlemen of that day-preju-
dices though that Were common to the
great heart of the people 1t was
Thomas Jefferson, vice president &C the
United States; man of the pe"p.c.
true and simple; believer in the rights
of man; Democrat if you will and
Democrat who was the autocrat of Nir
ginia, and idol of the hearts of the men
who were then the bone and sinew of
this republic of ours; he was altogether
a wonderful appearance phenomenon
of that day because he fully believed in
what he taught. Personally, Jefferson
was not an attractive man AZ hrst, but
who, in the end, grappled men 20 him
self with hooks of steel" His gait was
Il kind of Shamble, an easy treaI that
YOU never noticed till the man stood be'
side you: his right shoulder was some
what higher than the left he stopped
slightly and seemed constantly engaged
i'll thought. His eyes were blue AID
suggested a playful, sympathetic 1i,no-
sition rather than the soul that com
manded men wherever he went; his HAIR
WAS sandy, with Il considerable sprinkle
of gray for Jefferson was just farming
bis 5Sth year and his life had not been
an easy one. | said he was seldom seen
except on horse back-he was in fact
seldom seen i'll public, he was too busy
for that Most of his time was spent III
dis seat as president of the Senate or at
his desk answering the numerous let
ters he received each day from his host
of correspondents, political Geutenants
in this country, family connections-for
no man loved his family more than
Observation-Disclosures in Europe or
statesmen or crowned heads. His letters
now eXtant, and not half could have
been preserved, fill twelve large octave
volumes and i'll them are discussed every
question that has any bearing on human
affairs from speculations as to the origin
of language down to details concerning
the making of wrought-iron nail. So
bread and deep had been his studies that
no man ever failed TO get intelligent adj
vices that asked it of the sage of Mon
tieello.
1t was not familiar form in public,
yet man who had been in public life
twenty four years, and had represented
America i'll France at the Court Of
Louis XVI, had been at the great Ma
tional Convention of France and given
welcome advice, both to the convention
aud the court had published a book on
Virginia and contributed articles
for the great enclyclopaedias then
being printed in France; had
travelled over France as few
Frenchmen had done, and what was
more he had gone into the houses of the
peaSantry, looked into their pots while
meals were cooking and sat on their
beds to find out whether they were Gem
Portable or not; then, too, he had been
Secretary of State under Washington,
and had seen his name suggested in all
the papers as the successor of the first
president; he had been identified with
every reform in Virginia and advocated
most progressive measures for the young
government. In short it was none other
but the author of the Declaration of In
dependence that was then-iust hun
dred years ago-Vice President of the
United States and a vice president who
did not find his office irksome and be-
meath his dignity and station as the
elder Adams had complained
1t meant a great deal for young
america, and for us today that that
quiet mobtrusive. all-observant country
gentleman occupied the chair of the
Senate. The iercest and bitterest strug-
gle ever fought out in this country
without bloodshed was then on and lit
tie as we would have thought it, Jeffer-
son was the very soul of the fight he
realized as few or none Of that day did
what the contest meant, and many years
afterward when he was getting ready
for that final. solemn farewell to earthly
things, he said that he and Gallatin-
another true simple Democrat murtured
i'll the cradle of republican Switzerland
had during the years of 179S--1S00 saved
this republic of ours.
A'ams was president, but he did not
speak to his Vice President The
Senate was two-thirds Federalist, and
in the House, too the Federalists were
i'll the majority. In the election for
speaker Sedgwick was chosen 10y AZ to
SO votes; the SO votes being cast for a
North Caroliniasl-one of the greatest
men the State has ever produced
Nathaniel Macon. The leader Of the OPP
position. of the Democratic party, was
Albert Gallatin--a man whose life is in
every way interesting, another one of
those Jeffers0nian statesmen that was
to. remain still quarter Of a century
prominent in the councils of our country.
Macon had been then nine years in Con-
gress and was to remain still twenty nine
years in steady succession in Congress.
John Randolph. of Roanoke, was there,
too, just twenty-six years and was be-
ginning to dispute the leadership of his
party, even in that day of truly great
Democrats, beginning. too, that strange
career that continued to fascinate and
startle Congress and the country for SO