Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1904-06-30


though Judge Parker and Mr. Hearst
would effectually dispose of each 9TH
er, leaving the field finally to some per-
son who has not been so much in the
limehght. It would surprise no one
who has carefully watched the prog
ress of events if the nomination goes
to General Francis Marion Cockrell of
Missouri. George. b. Mcclellan of New
York, Charles a. Towne of New York
or james r. Williams of Illinois.
Jefferson's Versatility.
AS the Fourth Of July approaches it is
universally proper to discuss Thomas
Jefferson, who more than any other
man made the day immortal.
It's versatility was one of the most
striking features Of Thomas Jeffer
sons exquisite mind, which was both
telescope and microscopic i'll its range
and operations Shakespeare has been
denominated 1.-THE Myriad Minded
That description may be applied to
Jefferson without exaggeration or bad
taste.
Lord Bacon declared that he took all
knowledge for his province, which
Jefferson appears to have done also,
although he never so. stated or in,
timated. His bent was toward philos-
ophy, and the Philosophical Society of
Paris voted him gold medal for In
venting a pillow with moIdboard Of
least resistance.
Sir Isaac Newton is much and justly
Landed by historians for deyising a
plan for milling the edge of coins, but
jefferson accomplished so many things
of importance in so many fields of hui
man endeavor that little mention is
made of the fact that he invented our
system Of coinage, weights and meas
ures- based on the decimal notation
thereby comforting an inestimable boon
upon his countrymen,
Had he not been drawn by circum-
stances into the swirl of politics he
would as scientist have ranked with
| the father of inductiye philosophy
with the discoverer of the law of CRAWL
tation and with the captor of the light
ming.
1t is conceded by all his associates,
whether friend or foe-and he bad a
full complement of both-that he thor
oughly mastered the law, to accom-
plish which task Lord Eldon asserted
that zone must live like hermit and
work like a horse Jefferson sub
scribed to the last half of Eldon's die
tum, but scorned the first half utterly,
for all his days he was the most socia-
BILE of mortals, being at home equally
with the plain people and with the
greatest of the sons of men.
| While mathematics We're such a per-
petual delight to him that he habitual-
4 " carried with him a pocketbook of
logarithms as an aid in intricate cal
culations, he was thoroughly grounded
in Greek, Latin, French and Italian
and was in posse as universal lin
guist as Elihu Burritt, Nthe learned
blacksmith" With much labor, indie
fatigable industry and infinite patience.
he collected fifty Indian vocabularies.
the loss of which by theft he mourned
| always.
AS a presidential scholar he stands
in a class with John Quincy Adams
and James Abram Garfield He was
so cunning with his per" to borrow
happy phrase from John Adams. that
in point of literary excellence his Sum
mary View of the Rights. of British
America" his Declaration of Inde-
pendence and his first inaugural adj
dress rank with Millions proae. the let
tiers of Alexander Pope and the Book
of Common Prayer.
To please friend and as a mental
recreation he wrote bis Notes on Vfr-
ginia,' which is an authority to this
day and which is as pleasant reading
as Goldsmith's animated Nature,
and much more instructive
He possessed fine musical talent and
was a famous fiddler. drawing the bow
with the zest of Paganini and Ole
Bull
He was familiar with all systems of
architecture and knew more about them
than any other American of his gener-
alton
Agriculture was his hobby. He did
more for its promotion than any other
statesman that ever lived and deserves
to be the perpetual emeritus president
of the Patrons of Husbandry. He was
the first man on this continent to re-
duce farming to a science. He divided
his lands into plots and kept an aecu-
rate account with each, SO that he
could ascertain what sorts of crops
were suited to particular soils. He OBJ
tanned for the planters of the south
Turin rice, which has proved a source
of vast wealth to that section. He inn
4 ported the first Merino sheep. which
gre n great salccnss and fxnaIir1erlted