The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1910-04-16
JEFFERsoN's ANNIVERSARY.

JEFFERSoN'S ANNIVERSARY.
The birthday of Thomas jefferson,
third president of the United States,
and the immortal author of the Dec
laration of Independence, was cele-
brated last Wednesday by the faithful
democracy who believe in the princi-
pies enunciated by him in his great
charter of freedom. Jefferson was a
Democrat in theory and practice, hold
ing that the world is governed too
much and that that government is
best which governs least" He it was
who proclaimed "equal liberty for all;
special privileges to none"
Could the champion of the plain,
common people revisit the glimpses
of the moon" and behold in the execu-
tive chair, which he occupied for eight
years, big, fat man who hobnobs
with the plutocracy and receives
gratuity of $4,000 a year to defray
his travelling expenses for attending
banquets and social functions from
one end of this vast country to the
other what would he think?
What would be the amazement of
Jefferson, who rode on horseback to
Washington to be inaugurated presi-
dent on March 4, 1901 and who hitched
his steed to a fence while taking the
oath of Office, If he arrived in the ma
tional capital today and saw Vice
President Sherman and Joseph G. Can
non furnished by Congress at the peo-
PIES expense with gorgeous and cost
ly autos driven at furious speed by
liveried chauffeurs' along Pennsylvania
avenue and the other fashionable
thoroughfares of the "City of Mag
niflcent Distances"
Things have changed in hundred
years from democratic simplicity to
plutocratic luxury to such degree
that the founders of the republic, if
they came back to earth, would imag-
inc the United States, as now gov
erned, to be monarchy. They would
learn with surprise that the party now
in the ascendant no longer believes
that governments are instituted
among men, deriving their just powers
from the consent Of the governed" and
that the present occupant of the pres
idential chair has governed another
race of men thousands Of miles away,
against their consent, and by an armed
force which still keeps them in sub
jugation. They would also learn that
another president, a mighty hunter Of
wild animals, recently praised in
Egypt the same power which Jefferson
condemned SO emphatically in his i'm
! mortal declaration when "a decent re-
spect to the opinions of mankind
prompted him to give his reasons for
breaking loose from the British yoke.
1t Is a wholesome thing for the
democracy of this nation to venerate
the memory of jefferson on every re-
curing anniversary of his birth. They
should also honor the memory of Lin
,, coin. for. he was also the friend and
advocate of the common people and
the foe of the great malefactors of
wealth." That is why the Republic
cans of the present day prefer Hamil-
ton to him. Who ever hears any rep
resentative of the special interests in
Tafts cabinet speak eulogistically of
the first martyred president? Does
of the regulars in Congress quote the
words of Lincoln in his Gettysburg
speech when he said that "a govern
ment of the people, by the people and
for the people shall not perish from
the EARTH" If they uttered such words
the occupants of the galleries would
laugh them to scorn. The people have
had the scales fall from their eyes and
they now see the Republican legislators
at Washington in their true colors. AT
the fall elections they will retire the
most of them and elect other men who
will attend to their interests.
HONOR TO AN OLD CITIZEN.
The other evening, the Publicity
Club of this city paid special honor
to George A. Bracket. one Of the early
pioneers, by rendering him a testi-
monial banquet. About 900 of the lead :