Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1905-05-01
THOMAS JEFFERSON
governmental PRINCIPLES OF
The FOUNDER OF DEMOCRACY
Abstract of Speech by William J.
Bryan Be fore the Chicago Jeffer-
son Club, April Is. Equal Rights
to All, Special Privileges to None,
His Motto.

The following is an extract from the
speech of William J. Brya1 at banquet
given by the Chicago Jefferson club, on
April l3:
Bancroft, i'm his remarkable tribute to
the intelligence, capacity ami patriotism
OF the people, declares "Truth is not to
be ascertained by the impulse of an in.
dividnal, it emergrs from the contradic-
tions Of present opinions; it raises itself
in ma jestlc serenity above the strifes OF
parties and the conflict of sects; 1T ac-
knowledges neither the solitary mind
nor the separate faction as it's oracle, but
owns as it's only faithful interpreter the
dictates of pure reason itself proclaimed
by the general voice OF mankind. The
DEGREES of the universal conscience are
the nearest approach to the presence OF
God in the soul of man,
Jefferson early adopted this philoso-
ply. and he never varied from it to the
day of his death. To him the people
were supreme. He knew their weak.
nesses and their sources of strength, and
without expecting perfection in man or
in the works of man, he put confidence
in the virtue of the masses.
Jefferson was so much lover of peace
and SO ardent as an advocate OF it, 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
State ''should give the world stlll an
other useful lesson by showing to them
other modes of Furnishing injuries than
by war;" "War," he said, Twas as
much a punishment to the punisher as
to the sufferer" Fourteen years after
he retired from the presidency and near
the close of his life, in letter to John
Adams, he said, II hope We shall prove
how much happier for man the Quaker
policy is, and that the life of the feeder
is better than that of the fighter" His
advocacy of peace does not prove lack
of physical bravery, but whatever may !
have been his physical courage there is
no doubt that he possessed that higher
quality known as moral courage, to an
extraordinary degree. His faith in pop
ular government was sublime and his
willingness to rely upon the people was
one OF his most distinguishing char acter-
istics. How jefferson differed in this
from, his ,,nl.t;o.l
ist, Alexander Hamilton! Hamilton
fought duel in spite OF his conscientious
objections to dueling because he believed,
as he declared before going to the fatal
field, that it was necessary to fight the
duel in order that he might be useful in
a crisis for which he was looking, and
that crisis was the breaking down of free
institutions. Jefferson not only promul-
gated the principles of free government,
but in his writings he consistently ap-
piled those principles to every problem
with which the government had to deal
And the principles which he applied
were so fundamental that we find them
useful today in the discussion OF ques.
tions which have arisen since his death.
On the subject of acquiring territory
by conquest. now favored by an inhuen.
tial portion of our countrymen, he said,
eff there be one principle more deeply |
rooted than another in the mind OF every |
American. it is that we should have
nothing to do with conquest" and at an.
other time he said: Conquest is not in
our principles; it is inconsistent with
our government"
On the subject Of taxation he ever in.
sisted upon its limitation to the actual
needs of government and upon It's equit-
able distribution. He is on record in
favor of the arbitration of disputes be.
tween nations, and no one who is famil. |
lar with his writings can doubt that he
would favor arbitration today of disputes
between labor and capital. and his views
upon the encroachments of the judiciary
and the value of trial by jury make it
certain that ne would, if living, oppose
what We know as government 0y injunc.
ton.
All his arguments in favor of making
the government responsive to the will Of
the people can be adduced in support OF
the movement that has for Its object the
election OF senators by direct vote of the
people. On the subject of finance he not
only favored bimetallism, but he ex-
pressed his opposition to bank currency
and to the control of the national treas
ury by the financiers.
He lived before the invention Of the
railroad, and before the country had