The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-06-26
Roosevelt and the Fourth.

II oIl 6diHeS, ia, RECORDER.
The glorious Fourth will soon be on
us with its noise and excitement, its
enJoyments and it's excuses, its pleas
ures and accidents. There will be ex-
cursions and picnics, where some will
get more of various things, INCLUDING
req, bugs, than is good for them. There
Will be parades and drum-beating and
patriotic speech making, and the old
Declaration will be brought out and
again read for the information of the
masses. The small boy will fire
crackers and torpedoes, scorch his eyes
and dislocate his fingers. and VOW that
he has had glorious time.
There Will be some politics in it, al
SO. and some OF our good Republican
friends will take advantage of the &C.
casion to applaud one Theodore Roose-
welt as one of the greatest men the
country has produced. In order to
help them along we beg to refresh
their memories a little with respect to
opinions he has expressed of those who
preceded him and who had more or
less to do with the day we celebrate.
There was Thomas Jefferson, the ar
chitect and builder of the Declaration
of independence, author of the Virgin
la Resolutions, the maker of the Lou
isiana Purchase, and in various otner
ways closely and intimately and hon
orably associated with the beginning
of a new nation. He in the opinion
of his latest successor, was Vacillating,
COthpCtCHlS II
doctrinaire. and in various other ways
very small man measured by .Ae
RooseVeltian standard.
Then there was James Madison, call
ed the Father of the Constitution, the
man who brought the second war with
Great Britain to a glorious end. and
who stands side by side with Jefferson
as one of the founders and preservers
OF our government and our institu-
lions: he was timid incapable, a ridic-
nInllEIV tnnnn1nafnnf s,R
imbecile capacity and one who brought
shame and disgrace to America. These
are the opinions expressed of him by
Roosevelt.
And there was James Monroe, author
of the famous Monroe Doctrine w..lch
has stood for generations as a NOR u
ment to the wisdom and Americanism
of its author--Monroe, according to
Roosevelt, was nothIng but a figure
head, and his services as Secretary of
War under Madison is set down by
the same authority as triumph Of
imbecility to the last"
Even Andrew Jackson, the hero of
New Orleans, the man who throt lled
the United States Bank and who crush
ed notification: he was nothing but an
ignorant figure-head who was man
aged by politicians, and whose admin
istration, according to Roosevelt, Cor
rupted the public service in every
way"
These estimates of former Presidents
are the deliberately written and print
ed opinions of Theodore Roosevelt
now, to the misfortune and shame of
the American people. at the head of
our government. They were written
several years ago, not by a callow
youth, but by a man who claimed to
be a well-Informed student of Ameri-
can affairs and held himself fully COM
petent to discuss the characters and
events associated with the earliest and
most glorious period of our scountry's
history. Since he became President
he doubtless entertains a still higher
opinion OF himself and looks with
greater contempt en- his predecessors.
AS we said, the Fourth is not a long
way off and some of the orators who
are booked for the occasion are think
ing over and preparing their speeches.
The Republican speakers will be pretty
sure to ring in some laudation of
Roosevelt, and they should not be In
ignorance of the miserable ISLANDERS he
has heaped on the names of men who
are as far above him as Washington
was above Benedict Arnold. II the
Independence day orators want to re-
fer to him let them speak of him as a
slanderer of better men and as ,Ae
monumental egotist of the age. against
whose serpent tongue no previous
President is secure. That is the view
of him that Americans should take on
independence Day.