New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1904-11-15
"JEFFERSoNIAN PRINCIPLES.Y

The statement in review of the election which
was issued on Sunday by the Hon Thomas e.
Watson, late candidate for President of the
Peoples party defines with unerring accuracy
the situation in which Mr.. Bryan has been left
by the result Of the campaign. Logically, the
claims which the Nebraska statesman held to
be sacred during the years of his own leader
ship bind him to respect the platform on which
he earnestly advocated the election of Judge
Parker and the continuing authority OF the
party organization which he has Loyalty recog-
niZed since the st. Louis convention. Whether
or not he will seek TO escape from the posi-
ton TO which he has thus been consigned by
the course of events remains to be seen. Mr..
Watson seems TO be convinced that he could
not escape If he would, but that is a rather
hazardous conclusion. The logic Of the Popu-
list leader is sound, but Democratic practice is
erratic.
It is to be regretted that Mr.. Watson, when
he turns from personalities to formulate pro-
gramme Of opposition to Republcansm, can
think OF nothing more definite and rational to
say than that the first and sole requirement is
reassertion of "Jeffersonian principles" Mr.
Watson is not by nature given to imitation. He
has mind of his own and has thought to some
purpose Yet in this address to the public,
which he must regard as important and pre-
sumably designs the keynote of radical
prOpaganda, he 1eeDly TeSoIls 10 I" phi"0o
which has ceased 10 convey any meaning or
communicate any inspiration to the multitude
He might perhaps. find some excuse in the fact
that unlike the great majority of those who are
in the habit of talking about Jefersonan prlh-
ciples he has actually studied the character ana
career of jefferson, and that the STOCK phrase
which he employs corresponds TO a real image
in his own mind But. even so, he ought to have
remembered the vast vacuity which he was en-
deavoring to fill.
For wears every Democratic platform has rep
resented itself as a perfect expression of JEFF
fersonian principles It might he fiat contra
diction Of all that had gone before and would
follow after but that made no diference-lt
was pure Jeffersonian, and the party orators
on n thousand stumpS have vociferously pro
claimed it to be an authentic exposition OF the
faith once delivered to the saints, From SuiZer'
the vox ct preterea nihil of the 'peepul, 10
Shepard the man of keen intellect and an I'M
charted political conscience, the spokesman OF
Democracy in all its grades of comparative
sense and unqualified foolishness have pledged
their undying devotion to Jeffersonian princl-
pies We have their individual word for it that
there exists no truer disciples of Jefferson than
Cleveland and Hearst, Bryan and Olney. Wat
son and Parker Debs and Cochran, Belmont
and Tillman. Hill, Williams, Sheehan. Carlisle,
McCarren. Hornblower and German.
What can Mr. Watson hope to accomplish,
where can he expect TO arrive, by adopting the
empty jarCon OF many a discordant PLATFORM
and inglorious campaign as the counterSlgn OF
a new and militant organization? The Amerl-
can people will never enlist under the banner
of JeffersOnian principles until they are able at
least to conjecture what it stands for