Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1904-07-21

NHE convention Of 1904. for bet
ter or for worse, has gone into
history, and. whatever else the
annalist of our times may say
of it, he must say that a more earnest
or enthusiastic set of freemen never
met together to consider the state of
any country. From start to finish
there was not a dull moment in it.
The cream of the nations Democracy
was there consulting as to the future
of the great party of constitutional
liberty. The surroundings were most
inspiring. The convention was held in
st. Louis, the greatest city in the Lou
isiana purchase, which Thomas Jeffer-
son, the father of Democracy, added to
the Union. and it was his greatest act.
When he wrote his own celebrated
epitaph it was in these words: .Here
was buried Thomas Jefferson, author
of the Declaration of Independence,
of the statute of Virginia for re-
ligious freedom, and father of the
University of Virginia" BY some
strange oversight he neglected to add
land maker of the Louisiana pur-
chase" The three acts which he did
enumerate We're immortal deeds, en-
titling him to the undying love and
gratitude of all Americans, but if he
had never lived somebody else would
have written Declaration of hide
pendence-not such stately and glow.
ing paper as his, but it would have
suff1ced If he had never been born
somebody would have written Vir-
ginia's statute for religious freedom
for that, too was inevitable. If he had
never beheld this glorious world some
body would have founded a great uni
versity in Virginia, for great uni
versity is a necessary possession of
great state But if Thomas Jefferson
had not been president in 1903 the
chances are thousand to one that we
would never have owned a square foot
of land west of the Mississippi and
that today, all over the vast extent of
territory between the Father Of Wa
tiers and the Pacific ocean, in place
of the stars and stripes there would
be floating the tricolor of France, the
banner of the Spanish Bourbons or
the union jack of England. Conse-
quently it was particularly appropriate
that the party founded. by Jefferson
should hold its national convention in
the land which he added to the I'm
ion at the very time and in the same
city in which is being splendidly cele-
brated the hundredth anniversary Of
his stupendous trade in real estate.
Everybody now knows that it was
great convention, and most persons
who read the signs of the times be-
lieve that it named a winning ticket.
So much has been said about Judge
Parker in these letters and in the pub
lie press generally that it is superfluous
to say more about him at this time.
Those who know him best speak most
highly of him, which is the best sort Of
certificate of good character.
Ex-United States Senator Henry G.
Davis of West Virginia has been out of
public life several years, devoting him
Sell ~ LIS plANotC puSlhSoS' ~ tAlet 4Aob
much has been. said about him. His
career is the ideal American one-such
as will appeal to every American. He
began life as brakeman on the Balti-
more and Ohio railroad and worked
himself up to a place in the senate of
the United States, where he served
twelve years. He has also accumu-
lated a considerable property by deyel-
oping the vast and multifarious re-
sources of his state. Nobody ever
claimed that he got one cent dishon-
estly. His name will restore West Vir-
ginia to the Democratic column and
help carry Maryland and Delaware
also. His nomination was most for
tunate.