The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1902-07-15

arg UllC41J " md44bd1A bD01I Opl1lOIS
in matters of religion"
The same faith in abstract princi-
pies made Thomas jefferson the au
thor of the Declaration of Independ-
ence, for, young as he was, no one was
thought so fit as he, in that critical
hour of the Nation, to formulate its
yet unformulated faith in liberty and
justice. It made him, too, a firm be-
lever in popular education by the
State, when as yet education by the
State was wholly in an experimental
stage, and enabled him to lay, in the
University of Virginia, the founda-
tions of an optional system in the
higher education which has now been
carried further than it was possible
to carry it in his time, although along
lines which he projected. In short,
Thomas Jefferson was the great ex-
perimenter of the creative epoch of
our National life, and it is an evil
dence of his genius that the expert
ments of this pioneer, who in his own
time was counted so rash and radical,
have achieved so great results and
have been accompanied by so little in
jury.
This is partly owing to the fact
that, though Thomas Jefferson was a
doctrinaire, he was not above learning
by experience. Happily for him, and,
considering his influence on the peo-
pie, happily for the Nation, he was
not in the least afraid of being incon-
sistent. Perhaps no incident in his
life illustrates this saving grace of in
consistency more than his purchase
of Louisiana. He was a strict con-
structionist, and did not believe that
the Constitution gave power to Con-
gress to acquire additional territory;
he dreaded the concentration of power
in the hands of the Executive, and
was elected to the Presidency because
his teachings had done so much to in
spire the popular mind with that
dread; he held vigorously to the divid-
ing line between the different depart
ments of government, and one cause
of his hostility to Chief Justice Mar
shall was the doctrine of the latter
that the Supreme Court could pro-
nounc a law unconstitutional and
bind other departments of the Gov
eminent by its decision. But when
Livingston found that he could pur-
chase the Territory of Louisiana, JEFF
ferson without a qualm ratified the
purchase. When he found that if the
purchase was delayed by a long debate
in Congress, French feeling might be
excited against the sale and the offer
might be withdrawn, he did not hest
tate to force the necessary legislation
through Congress almost without op-
%pOrtunity for discussion; and when
the purchase was completed, he did
not hesitate to accept and exercise
substantially dictatorial powers over
the newly acquired Territory. His
acute intelligence was equal to the
task of subsequently maintaining that
could purchase territory but
could not incorporate it into the
without an amendment to the
Constitution, which, however, was
never even proposed with any serious
ness; but the only defense which he
urged when accused of the other in
constituencies in his curse was that
welfare of the Nation and the peo-
Die demanded the action which he had
aiken. 1t is this readiness to depart
rom an abstract principle in concrete
action when the occasion requires it
which distinguishes a statesman from
doctrinaire. This quality of incon-
istency, which has subjected Thomas
Jefferson to the sharpest criticism.
eally made him a great statesman, !
Notwithstanding he was a doctrinaire. ,
We have but little space left in /
which to speak of other qualities in /
contradictory and enigmaticaI '
haracter. They present contradic- '
ions analogous to those which the t
i~spassionate observer discerns in that q
emocracy of which Thomas Jefferson
,as at once a prophet and a type. His
hole political philosophy was found s
d on his faith in humanity and yet a
all prominent politicians of his C
me he was perhaps the one most sus- I
icious of the individual specimens of t
umanity with whom he was most t
.OselY associated in nnliticaI o~ntion. n