The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-01-09
Spirit of the Press.
THE UNIQUE PRESIDENT.

THE UNIQUE PRESIDENT,
Springfield Republican.
1t is said that Mr.. Plat of New fori*
has consoled himself, in the matter OIL a
recent unfiattering estimate OF his pup
lie career, by noting that the same
critic has said 1.-The average president,
stripped of his fame and power, Wouid
not be eligible to membership in man
literary club in a country town rms
is the familiar idea that "a man does not
have to know much to be president OF
the United States, that if he has COM
mon sense and average intelligence, with
good advisers, he cannot go far wrong
in public affairs. This may be an eX-
aggerated notion, although it is indeed
true that the average American Dres1-
dent has not been Of that select class
known as highly cultivated IN the
bookish sense. In view of the success
of the country2there is reason to glory
in the fact, since it shows that ordinary
men drawn. from this vast democracy
can successfully carry the burdens OF
government. A@}A a4@ 1f =
at o,1ght not to be true, however & that
a really remarkable man cannot rise to
the president of the United States. In
the mast. there has been at least one
president who was not only highly enc
dowed intellectually, but was in close
sympathy with the highest culture and
learning of his time. Curious to say,
he was the father of democracy IN
America, Thomas Jefferson. Postertty
is ant to remember jefferson only as q
statesman and politician, as the writer
,,f Ind
president who bought Louisiana and
added the vast territory to the natlonai
domain, as the first of the national lead
ers of the Democratic party, 1T may De
doubted whether his countrymen of to-
day fully appreciate how much else ne
was. In this connection 1t is not neces-
sary to speak of him as reformer OF the
Democratic type in the pre-Revoiutiona-
ry days of Virginia or as parliamen-
tartan whose original manual Tor par
liamentary law is still one of the hign-
est authorities for deliberative assem-
blies or as a successful dlplonlatlst
abroad in the service of his country
In public service to this republic he de-
serves to rank Immediately after WASH
ington and Lincoln among the Presl-
dent But all that aside. JEFFERSON was
in other respects, having to do largely
with his private life, the most eXtraor-
binary man who has thus far occupied
our highest office of state.
Jefferson was SO preeocious that at Il
years of age he became an intimate as
sociate of George Wythe, the greatest
lawyer of Virginia and Dr. Small. the
most learned scholar of the colony In
the convention that issued the Declara-
tion of independence his literary gifts
were esteemed as highly as, DR.. Frank
Inns. although Jefferson was then 80 and
Franklin over TO- His colleagues knew
him as already the most accomplish
ed man in the colonies, Franklin pos
sibly excepted. He was fine mathema-
tician and calculated the eclipse OF 1913
with accuracy; he also read Homer,
Virgil, Dante and Cervantes in their
originals as readily as he did Shake
speare, and in his old age he read the
Greek tragedies in the original as recre-
alton. 1t has been we'll said that had he
been reared in Europe he might easily
have been an author or an artist. His
Notes on Virginia" was highly meri-
torious as literary work; he was
passionate lover of music and cultivated
in it far beyond the musical standard OF
his country. His artistic temperament
was manifested especially in his studies
of architecture, and his classic taste has
been preserved in his house at Month
cello, the Virginia State capitol build
ing at Richmond, and the beautiful
buildings of the university of Virginia,
the plans of all of which were conceived
and drawn to the last detail by Thomas
Jefferson.
jefferson, by reason of his literary and
artistic temperament was unique among
presidents vet he was also sui generis
among them in his scientific learning and
achievements. His inventions alone were
noteworthy He invented a copying press
by which two letters could be written
at once folding chair, the revolving
chair now in common use in business Of
fees, hemp break, a pedometer to
measure distances walked, and pillow
which was so great an Improvement over
anything then in use that in 1870 the
French Agricultural Society OF the Seine
voted him a vaiua bic gold medal. JEFF
Persons Monticello had an abundant sup
ply OF microscopes, tclcscopcs-as an
astronomer no layman of his timei sur
passed him theodolites hydrometers,
electric batteries and so on. He was the
first man to introduce the threshing ma
chine into America, and he was one of
the very first in high station to indorse
vaccination. When Watts steam engine
was first heard of in England, Jefferson