The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-08-04
TALES OF CLOAK-ROOM
 TOLD BY CHAMP CLARK
All Men Are Not Created Equal in Intellectual Capacity---SOns Often Greater Than >
 Their Fathers.

nuestion of the transmission of certain qualities from parent to offspring, both in the human race and among the low CT animals. was the theme of converse tion. It ranged all the way rom the fad of the eccentric Frenchman who, had left large fortune in trust for the purpose of propogating race of giants to the breeding of bobtail pups. .Rurni- hating upon what 1 heard, l collated certain facts which may be of interest. "Is there any such thing as heredity in American politics." is question which affords food for reflection to sociologists. philosophers ana stasss, men. Evidently Thomas Jefferson aid not intend there should be, fer the en- tire theory of our institutions Is pot toned on this famous dictum: All men are created equal" lIe never meant. as some hypercritical persons wao were either stupid or decidedly un- candid have tried. to make 1t appear that all men have the same endow- ments of mind. soul and body.
 Such an assumption would have been preposterous, and most assuredly sef- ferson did not deal in the preposterous. With his exquisite intellect he could not have thought that the chances or all men for political prefermeEe are equal. He understood too well the phi losophy of environment and hcw great a part luck or accident plays .n the af- fairs of men.
 What he meant and all he meant was that all men are endowed by nature with equal political rights and am in clined to think he used men 1s ge- neric term, like the Latin homo, in- cluding the women also. His Immortal saying contains the entire motive pow CT of that leveling process which has -A. T tt,ax f1T a century.
 It is fatal to the theory oc a.istoc- racy It rejects the idea of heTedity honors. and yet we see hereditary poll tical honors more and more in vogue in this land of universal suffrage. If the sins of the fathers are to be visited on the children of the third and fourth generations, it is by no means strange that their talents and virtues should also be transmitted and that children should be the benefciaries to some ex- tent at least of the honors and friend ships of their progenitors. Is there any such thing as heredity in the human family?
 Psychologists have wran gled about that always and will continue to do so t6 the end of time, I believe that Tot only talents and physical traits are transmitted from father to son. but manners. tastes, inclinations and apti- tudes The >Hspsburg lip is a recog- nized feature of the reigning family of Austria Hungary. Why can't mental characteristics descend as well as phy- sical? Astronomer Proctor in his ex- plorations into the realm of mathemat- ics. figuring on the doctrine of chances, ciphered it out some years ago that only one royal fush-whatever that may be-would be held in million hands in the game of draw poker.
 When the Constitution was adopted, s, thoroughly did the idea of heredi- tary political honors appear to be ex- ploded mathis country that the prophet would have been hooted at who pre- dicted frat in the first century of Con- stitutional government a father and a son of one family and a grandfather and grandson of another would all be presidents of the republic. while the sons of two other presidents would he mentioned as a possible Presidential team.
 It is true that John Quincy Adams was an abler man that old John and that General Benjamin Harrison easily outclassed. General William Henry Harrison. But no man who regards truth and who takes cognizance of the doctrine of cause and effect will for one moment believe that the younger Adams and the younger Harrison would ever have been President had not their illustrious ancestors held that exalted station. "Grandfathers hat" was a great thing for paragraphers world with lots of fun, but 1t stirred the hearts of many an old Whig who could remember the log cabin cam paign and the rhyming battle of--7
 Tippecanoe.
 And Tyler too.
 Perhaps who knows?-it was the straw that turned the scale against the New Yorker and in favor of the Hoosier. tf,
 John Adams and Abigail, his wife transmitted their talents, tastes and ambitions farther than any other pair in American history. They must have been an ideally mated couple. Two Adamses. old John and John Quincy were Presidents. These two and Charles Francis, son of John Quincy, were ministers to the court of St. James.
 Charles Francis was the Free Soil candidate for President, with Martin VanBrren, in 184S. and came near cap- turing the Liberal Republican nom. na- tion fore'tte RrVsfdepcy which Horace Greeley received in 1872. A great many wise men believe to this day that had he been nominated instead of the Sage of Chappaqua" he would nave been elected.
 His son. John Quincy, has been the Democratic nominee for Governor oi Massachusetts.
 Besides those already mentioned there are many other instances n oul annals where the tendency toward po- ltical life and the ability 10 succeed therein have descended from father tc son. In all fairness it should be stated that in many cases the sons are oi greater ability than their fathers.
 In antebellum days it was common enough for sons to ultimately succeed their fathers as representatives oi Southern constituencies.
 The two Dodges, the father from Wisconsin and the son from Iowa, sal side by side in the Senate of the United States before the war.
 For years-indeed. as the Romans would have said, ab urbe condita-tht senatorial office in Delaware was he reditary in the Bayard and Saulsbury families.
 Four Bayards have sat in the Sena tt James A.. his two sons. Richard B and James A. Jr.. and James A. Jr.'' son. Thomas F. The last named wa: sworn in just as his fathers term ex- hired. He was hsssador to the cour of st. James after having been Secre 4ar,, of State