The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-04-14

Jennings Bryan was the principal
speaker at the Jefferson banquet held
here tonight. In responding to the
toast Thomas jefferson" he said in
part:
We are told that when Moses, the
first great law-giver, had attained his
majority, he looked upon the burdens
of his countrymen and sympathized
with them. Although he had been
adopted by a princess and was heir
to throne, his heart led him from
the palace and the society of princes
to cOmpanionship with his oppressed
| brethren. When a leader was needed
to break the bondage of the Israelites
and guide them in the formation of a
nation, this sympathy fitted him for
his work. And no one, it 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
reared in the environment of royalty,
was born and educated among the
| people who least SympathiZed with
the rights and interests of the COM
mon man. His heart too, was touch
| ed by the struggles of his country
men, and he early became their
| champion, although in so doing ne
alienated the landed aristocracy and
the educated classes. In wealth he
was the equal of the wealthy, and his
| learning brought him into association
with scholars, but his heart kept him
| in touch with the plain people, and he
| earned the right to be called The First
Great Democrat
1t was not that ne was the first
to conceive of democratic principles
| or to preach the doctrine set forth IL
| the Declaration of Independence.
! That doctrine was not a new one;
doctrine at the time of it's greatest
| triumph The aspiration for self-gov
eminent was born with man. 1t has
been the inspiring cause which has
| led people in all ages to struggle for
! freedom of conscience freedom OF
speech individual liberty and the re
| cognitiOn of the rights of man. Some
i'm all ages have found selfish rea-
son for applauding monarchy, but al
no time has there been universal &C
quiescence in arbitrary power. Sheri
dan in his speech against Warren
Hastings says:
What motive? That which ma
ture the common parent, plants in
the bosom of man, and which, though
it may be less active in the Indian
than in the Englishman, is still con-
genial with, and makes a part of his
! being. That feeling which tells hin
| that man was never made to be the
property of men; but that, when il
| the pride and insolence of power, one
human creature seeks to tyrannize
! over another it is a power usurped
and resistance is a duty. That prin
ciple which tells him that resistance
! to power usurped is not merely duty
which he owes to himself and to his
neighbOr, but a duty which he owes
his God in asserting and maintaining
| the rank which ne gave him in his
| creation
Lincoln expressed the same senti
ment when ne declared that it was
! God himself who placed in every hui
man heart the love of liberty.
Jefferson also knew that the YER
! dict of history was in favor of gov
eminent by the people rather thar
! government by the few. He knew
that back in the days of Greece, when
| the people had chance to eon:,ast
the rule 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 num-
| Der Of atrocities both against persons
and against property; had been COM
mitted in a few months by the Thirty
and abetted by the class of Horse
men-all rich mcmillan the poor
|
ed during two generations of democ-
racy." He knew, also, what the
great historian Bancroft said some
eighty years ago-that THE govern
ment by the people is in very truth
! the strongest government in the
world" because 'discarding imple-
ments of terror it dares TO rule by
moral force and has its citadel in
the heart" Bancroft in this remark
able tribute to the intelligence, capaci-
| ty and patriotism. of the people, de-
| clareS Truth is not to be ascertained
! by the impulse of an individual, ii
| energies from the contradiction of
political opinions; it raises itself in
majestic serenity above the strife of
parties and the conflict of sects; 1t
| acknowledges neither the solitary
mind nor the separate factioniSts
| oracle but owns as its only faithful
interpreter the dictates of pure rea-
son itself proclaimed bv 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
| 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
| it, that he has been accused of lack
ing physical courage. Six years be-
| fore 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 Allowing to them other
modes of Furnishing injuries than by
war. A war he said, was as much
q punishment to punisher as to the
sufferer" Fourteen years after he
retired from the Presidency and neal
the close of his life, in a letter to
John Adams he said: Il 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 a lack of physi-
cal 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
popular government was sublime and