The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-04-11
Letters to The Editor.
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 THOMAS JEFFERSON.
A Legendary View.

Editor The Advertiser:
 There is a current popular error about Thomas Jefferson that ought to be cor rected John tiske called 1t the legenda- ry view His words, as printed Tn one of his Posthumous Essays are as fol- lows: Because in later years Jefferson came to be the head of a party which sympathized with revolutionary France, there has come into, existence a legendary view of him, as a sort of French doctri- naire politician and disciple of Rousseau. Nothing could be more grotesquely
 absurd Jefferson was broad enough to learn lessons from France, but he was no Frenchman in his politics" I follow F'iske implicitly in what he here says. l think he is the highest tas hA is of course the latesU authority on this par ticular subject, Let me now lay before you as a kind of object esson, two or ! three illustrations or samples of this legendary view. A writer in the Nigga zine of American History, gives an ac- course the latest authority on this par evening, with the celebrated French statesman Drouyn de Lhuys, Your Declaration of Indopendence.' sai1 the Frenchman, ''is not the work of Jeffer- son and Franklin, but of Rousseau and his school. All this talk about equality, popular rights and the laws of ua -ure is not American. It Is French" The second illustration is given by the cele-
 hrated English publicist John Morley who | is still living, In his life of Jean Jacques Rousseau in two volumes. referring to our | Declaration of Independence, he says: It l was from Rousseau's writings that the | Americans took the ideas and phrases l of their great charter" The third illus l tr1tion is furnished by James Russell
 Lowell. In one of his essays he speaks | distinctly of Rousseau as the father in | politics of JeffArson.'' These three ] eminent men are all wrong in what thsv
 here say. There is not a wo i If truth l in it. We have here the legendary view
 of which Fiske truly says: Notning | could b. more grotesq iely absurd" This 1 view is something new. It is an innova- | tion or afterthought It was never | preached or suggested or hinted at. any | where in any way by any body in Jef- ferson's life time. or for twenty years | after his death in 1926. There cannot | be found in either of the three collections of Jeffersons work dn four. nine and ten | volumes) any thing said or written by | him about Rousseau. or any mention of
 him or allusion to him. Again, the four | biographies of Jefferson. in their order.
 are by Tucker. Randall. Parton and
 Morse, Neither of these biographers l mentions Rousseau or any other Fren h. | man as the source from which Jefferson
 borrowed or derived any of his peculiar
 doctrines. principles or ideas in politics
 or economies. What then Is the origin
 of the legendary view of Jefferson of
 which Fiske says simply that 1t has | come into existence?" Who started it.
 and when and how and under what cir
 cumstances? On this point Fiske gives
 us nc information. And not sins;e one
 of the four blosraphers just named. has
 anything to say which authorizes the in- l ference or conclusion that he ever
 imagined or heard of such thing as thai
 Jefferson was "a sort of French doctrin.
 aire politician and disciple of Rousseau
 l shall not try to go into this question
 of origin. leave 1t to be solved ant
 explained in some new biography of lief
 ferson. of which all Americans are sorelS | in need
 ! Jefferson was an original thinkAr. Rlr