New-York tribune., 1905-04-21
JEFFERSON AND Els r,,1oc1ore

Thomas Jefferson's fame has hardly baon
enhanced by last weeks jefferson Rirthdav
celebrations. Dead statesmen. as we'll os Iiv
ing ones may we'll pray to be delivered from,
their friends, for regulations as great os Jef.
ferson's may easily be made to suffer throuob
unintelligent appreciation and misdirected euJo
gy If we are 10 Judge from the speeches de-
hvered in this city by Alton b. Parker and n
Cady Herrick and from those delivered in Chi
cagO by William j. Bryan and Mayor Edward
c. Dunno the Sage Of Monticello stands no.
where in greater need of honor than in his own
country and among his own political household
In those speeches Jefferson cuts, on the whole
a cheap and sorry figure. Messrs Parker and
Herrick are anxious 70 paint him as an inborn
conservative a radical without horns. hoofs or
claws, who if he were alive to-day would
favor government which minded its own
business" and would put no obstacles in the
way Of corporations seeking 10 restrain or
monopolize commerce, long as such cor
porations were chartered by a State Messrs.
Bryan and Dunno, on the other hand struggle
to find authority in Jefferson for their unvar-
nished programme of State socialism and per
suade themselves that were Jefferson alive to-
day be would take the stump for municipal
ownership of public utilities and federal owner
ship Of railroads and all other instrumentalites
Of interstate commerce. Processing to honor
his memory and TO be guided by his principles
these eminent twentieth century Democrats are
really using jefferson as n mere stalking horse
They are much less concerned about doing ius-
tice TO his achievements and his statesmanship
than about utilizing his authority for the pro
motion Of their own factional ends.
JefRerson's real title TO fame is quite neg
lected by these biassed and warning eulOgists
Among the men who struggled for indepen
dence and founded the nation, he was the
most confident and resolute democrat He be
lieved more fully than any of his contempo
rares in the democratic system of government
lin the capacity of the majority to govern and
to govern wisely. Other great leaders Of that
day dstrusted the people and limitations on
the principle of popular sovereignty We're in
corporated everywhere in our earlier cOnstitu-
tions But Jefferson had a firm faith in the
saving virtue of the average man. He believed
that in a republic progress must come not from
the top of the mass but from the bottom He
initiated and inspired the movement for enlarged
suffrage, for general education and for the aho-
ltion Of political privileges.
Eulogists of Jefferson might ind good ground
for insisting that these ideas have had their
vndcation; that though the work has been
slow, the American people have successfully edu
Gated themselves to the task of self-government:
that the nation as q whole, can be depended
upon to give a just and honest verdict on anv
issue; that popular sovereignty represents more
than force Of numbers. having begun to carry
with IL an unassailable moral force, which will
gain in strength as we outgrow still further the
prejudices and passions which swayed us so
largely in the first century Of our history. The
Presidential elections OF 1896. 1900 and 1908