Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1911-04-18
THOMAS JEFFERSON.


One hundred and sixty eight year:
ago Thursday, Thomas jefferson
author of the Declaration of Independ
ence, was born in Albemarle county
Virginia. If he had done nothing
more than write this document, the
greatest declaration of principles ever
inscribed by human being, ais fame
would be imperishable. For one hun
dred and thirty-five years it has been
an inspiration to every lover of LID
berty in the world and challenge to
every tyrant and oppressor, who as
suming to rule ''by divine right has
essayed to hold mankind in feudal SUB
jugation. Translated into every known
tongue it has been the daily prayer ol
the serf and the yassal of every c5n-
scienceleSs monarch who sits on a
throne and governs by dispensation
and caprice rather than by law
A firm believer in the political equal
ity of all men, we are reminded OF the
tiftieth anniversary of the attack on
Fort Sumter, that Jefferson was the
first of the two striking figures in
American history, born in the south,
who raised his hand and voice against
the infamy of human slavery Lincoln,
the other, native of Kentucky, freed
theslaye but it was Jefferson, half CEN
tury before, who during his second ad-
ministration as president, caused the
enactment by the Congress of a law
putting a stop forever to the cruel
slave traffic between the new states
and Africa. With the blackman, worth
but $500 each, before the advent of
Eli Whitney's cotton gin, now va lued
as high as 81, 200, it was brave and
courageous act of legislation and re-
quired forceful personality to COM
mand for it the approving considera-
tion of the country.
The American of today who shrinks
in horror in reading of the massacre of
Christians in Armenia and the period
ical slaughter of the Jews in Russia,
owes it largely to Jefferson, who wrote
the statutes guaranteeing freedom of
religious opinion in Virginia and sub
sequently had them engrafted into the
young republics constitution, that his
country, the refuge and asylum of the
prosecuted of all nations, enjoys the
fullest measure of religious freedom
yonchsafed anywhere on earth.
With no landed aristocracy to sup
port in idleness, no nobility to burden
it with its excesses, with the insen-
tive to every man to do his best, c9R-
fident that his reward Will be COM
mensurate with his achN Nvement, we
furnish to all, howev& lowly, his
estate or obscure his origin, the
opportunity to work %ut his des-
tiny according to his individual merit
and to make much or little of his life
as his talent, his enterprise and his
industry Justify. In the contempla-
tion of our wonderful prosperity and
progress and Of the long array of great
men who have risen from the ranks of
the plain people to political and indus
trial eminence under it's stimulating
influence those immortal words of the
brilliant Jefferson, proclaiming the
sovereignty of the ordinary citizen
come back to us on each anniversary
of his birth with refreshing emphasis:
"We hold these truths to be self evil
dent, that all men are created equal;
that they are endowed by their Great
or with certain inalienable rights, that
among these are life, liberty and the
pursuit of happiness"