The sun., 1908-04-14
~ THOMAS JEFFERSON WERE
HEREP

and he were asked whether he preferred
Roosevelt or Bryan or Taft for the next
President what would the answer bei
Could Hamilton come back and similar
inquiry be made Of him what would be his
replyl
The list OF the lhstrious to be called in
conference might he extended 10 include
the Presidents Washington, Jefferson.
jackson and Lincoln--whose birthdays are
now remembered and celebrated by their
countEymen, Madison and Marshall could
be added.
They could I've questioned as 10 prefer
ence by each among the visible four and
more Democratic and half dozen Repub-
lican aspirRnts for the White House.
1t may be pertinent In passing, to ask
why 1t ls that In later days neither Bryan
nor his partlsahs allude 10 jackson, and,
on the other hand, Roosevelt and Republicans
show more and more a tender sidefor him.
Although jefferson was brimmlng full
OF philanthropy, human kindness, sympa-
thy and the rights Of man, yet he could at
times be vlndictive and ferooious, as 10
shown In his autobiography and other writ
ings. He might therefore, II shown what the
present occupant Of the White House has
written Of the third President, turn aside
from Roosevelts third term. Jeherson's
resentment would naturally be aroused
against historian who had stripped him Of
proper morals, described him as ft for i'm.
mediate membership Of the Ananias Club and
as the father Of notification and secession.
The founder Of the Democratic party
was by nature timorous and unready.
He drew back from an open fight. He was
not brave and pugnacious 70 fault, and
always ready, like Jackson. 1t is there
fore not quite just TO stigmatize one like
Jefferson az a prevaricator when seeking
to avoid open blows In controversy.
Nor is 1t quite q square deal in these
days TO refer 10 jefferson as a nulli1er and
seoessionist as those words are now used,
! unless one knows the sense In which the
Kentucky resolutions Of l79S referred to
| State resistance to unconstitutional laws
and 10 the compact Of the Constitution.
The two Federalist alien and sedition laws
enacted during the term OF Jeherson's inn
mediate predecessor in the White House
we're rather high handed and very unoon-
sttutional. The Federalists having, as
Jefferson fanoied, retired into the national
judiciary as into fortress risky and des-
perate remedies we're, IL seems, deemed
necessary by the Jeffersonian Democrats
| Chief Justice Marshall had not then as
cended, IA he did later, thanks TO the elder
Adams, to the bench Of the Supreme Court
| MI NaA ha aV,A
to put an end TO unconstitutional laws State
and Federal.
And besides, the conduct Of New Eng
land Federdlists not long after when their
commerce had been ruined or was in the
process Of ruin by the Democratic en-
barge and non-intercourse, showed that
the device indicated In the resolutions Of
1898 was prevalent in the political atmos.
phere OF the whole country, and continued
to be till jackson by his victory at New
Orleans stimulated pride in the new Con-
stitution and the Union It EMBODIED. By
his dealings with South Carolina when
President jackson again arrested the
tendency Of 1898. No individuals and no
States would nowadays take up nullfca-
ton or secession, even II Congress did
legisste TO destroy interstate commerce.
The Supreme Court would be asked TO in
tervene Marshall worked that change.
In the present Congress Northern Repub-
licans and Southern Democrats have in the
House beaten again the old Hamilton
Jefferson straw. That threshing shows how
enduring Is the issue raised so long ago by
those two very great Americans over the
quantity and character Of the power which
by the voters shall be entrusted TO tie
comparatively small governing class the
aristooracy in a republio-at at Washington
and in the several States.
One Of the big four Republicans in the
House deemed it important the other day
to deny again that Jefferson Is entitled to
much credit for the Louisiana acquisition.
His opponent did not ask how the aoquisi-
tion could then have been made without
Jefferson. He never denied the right to
acquire. What he doubted was the right
OF treaty 10 incorporate into the Union
without the consent Of Congress. Finally
Jefferson yielded bis doubts to the opinion
Of Congress that by proper laws the Con-
stltution could he preserved and Louisiana
acquired under the treaty. The question
was admirably and eShaustively treated
in the Supreme Court by Justice White in
the Downes case, which was one among
the so-called -insular cases. A quarter
Of q century later the Supreme Court de-
cided the United States has 'the power OF
acquiring territory either by conquest or
treaty a. jefferson had thought.
Under the whip and spur Of persistent |
complaints that the country suffered from |
absence Of adequate regulation OF foreign
and interstate commerce the Congress OF |
the Confederation, which was in fact only |
O oonsultive body. recommended 10 the |
States, which approved, the assembling OF |
another convention to consider the CON- |
plants. The result was a new Constitution |
and new limited States part national and
part Federal. They seem not to have quite |
satisfied jefferson or Hamilton.
During Washington's first term Congress
enacted HAmilton's plan for funding the
public debt, assuming the State debts,
ohartering a national bank, protecting
manufactures and doing other fiscal things
which strengthened the national element
in the new government and gratihed the
commercial Glasses, the capitalists such as
then existing, whether benefactors or Smale-
factors and attached them 10 the new
order Of things. The work was necessary.
A strong Government was then needed.
The Union would have gone to pieces with
out II. Jefferson was by the defect Of his