The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-04-14
PROMINENT
 MEN SPEAK Jefferson Club Banquet
 in Chicago. BRYAN's coNGRATuLATIoN Resolved Into Notification
 Over Dunne. George Fred Williams and Windy City's New Mayor, Together With Nebrasian. the PricipaI
 Orators.

Chicago. April 13.--Subjects of na-
 tfonal significance to the Democratic
 party were discussed by prominent ora- | tors of the party at the Jeffersonian | Club banquet held at the sherman
 House tonight in commemoration of the
 birthday of Thomas Jefferson. The din- | ner. however. in a measure resolved it.
 self into iollification over Mayor Ed-
 ward F. Dunne who is a director of the
 club and was among the speakers who
 responded to toasts. William J. Bryan
 and George Fred Williams. of Massa-
 chusetts. were the principal speakers.
 MT. Bryan chose for his subject "Thom- | as Jefferson" and his remarks were
 greeted with unstinted applause. Mir. Bryan took advantage of the occasion 90 congratulate Mayor Dunne on his recent
 election as chief executive of the city of Chicago.
 Mir. Bryan's Speech.
 The Hon. William J Bryan respond | ed to the toast Thomas Jefferson !" | He said In part:
 | first great law giver, had attained his | majority, he looked upon the burdens Of his countrymen and sympathized with them. Although he had been l adopted by princess and was heir to a throne, his heart led him from
 the palace and the society of princes 1 to the companionship with his op- pressed brethren. When a leader was needed to break the bondage. of the | Israelites and guide them in the for
 nation of nation. this sympathy fit- ted him for his work. And no one. 1t may be added does a great work whose heart does not beat in sympathy with | the masses, ever struggling, ever in
 need of help.
 Thomas Jefferson, although not rear ed in the environment of royalty, was born and educated among the people who least sympathized with the rights and interests of the common man.
 His heart, too, was touched by the | struggles of his countrymen, and he | early became their champion, although
 in so doing he alienated the landed | aristocracy and the educated classes Tn wealth he was the equal of the
 wealthy, and his learning brought nim
 into association with scholars, but
 heart kept him in touch with the plain
 people, and he earned the right to be | called the First Great Democrat It was not that he was the first to l conceive of Democratic principles or | to preach the doctrine set forth in
 the declaration of independence. That
 doctrine was not new one; but he gave fitting expression to the doctrine
 at the time of its greatest triumph.
 The aspiration for self government was | born with man. It has been the fn-
 spring cause which has led the people
 in all ages to struggle for freedom
 of conscience freedom of speech, in-
 dividuual liberty and the recognition l of the rights of man. Some in all ages have found a selfish reason for applauding monarchy, but at no time | has there been universal acquiescence
 in arbitrary power. Sheridan in his
 speech against Warren Hastings says:
 What motive? That which nature,
 the common parent. plants in the bos-
 om of man, and which, though 1t may
 be less active in the Indian than in | the Englishman, is still congeniaI with, | and makes a part of his being. That | feeling which tells him that man was
 never made to be the property of men; but that, when in the pride and inso- lence of power, one human creature seeks to tyrannize over another, it Is
 a power usurped. and resistance is a
 duty. That principle which tells him | that resistance to power usurped Is | not merely duty which he owes him.
 self and to his neighbor, but duty
 which he owes his god in asserting and maintaining the rank which he gave him in his creation"
 Lincoln expressed the same senti- ment when he declared that 1t was God Himself who placed in every hu-
 man heart the love of liberty.
 Government by People.
 Jefferson also knew that the verdict of history was in favor of govern
 ment by the people rather than gov ernment by the few. He knew that 1 back in the days of Greece, when the people had a chance to contrast the
 rules of the Thirty with the rule of the people, they learned how much
 more the people were to be trusted.
 Grote declares that "A greater number
 of atrocities, both against persons and | against property, had been committed
 in a few months by the Thirty and | abbetted by the class of Horsemen- all rich men-than the poor majority of the Demos had sanctioned during two generations of Democracy" Jeffer- son knew, also. what the great historian
 Bancroft said some eighty years ago. that The government by the people
 Is in very truth the strongest govern ment in the world" because discard ing implements of terror 1t dares to rule by moral force and has its cita- del in the heart" Bancroft in this remarkable tribute to the intelligence capacity. and patriotism of the people. delcares The truth is not to be ascer- talned by the impulse of an individ- ual, 1t emerges from the contradictions of political opinions it raises itself in majestic serenity above the strife of parties and the conflict of sects; IL acknOWleuBeS neltnef the solitary mind nor the separate faction as It's oracle, but owns as its only faithful interpreter the dictates of pure reason itself proclaimed by the general voice of mankind. The decrees of the uni versal conscience are the nearest ap- proach to the presence of God in the soul of man.
 Jefferson early adopted this philoso- phy, and he never varied from 1t to the day of his death. To him the peo- pie were supreme. He knew their weaknesses and their sources of strength. and. without expecting per lection in man or in the works of man. he put confidence in the virtue of the masses.
 Jefferson was so much a lover of peace and so ardent an advocate of 1t, that he has been accused of lacking physical courage. Six years before his election to the presidency he declared his love of peace and his anxiety that the United States should give the world still another useful lesson by showing them other modes of punish ing injuries than by war'--var he