New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1912-11-01

did unite anu dCI uPN' 49,
did give II a startled and universal
consideration. That Is the essentlai
thing There we're four other men OF
the highest note on this committee OF
Congress. No one Of them did H. no
one claims to have done It, Every
change ever made in it from MT Jei-
ferson's original draft is OF record. NO
one Of them is vital: though, as Johh
Adams himself said, it might have been
better il some passages had oeeh leI'
as they were. Still, the document Is Ill
better taste without some Of them. Ihe
Young, self trained writer Of thirty
three had not then wholly outgroWh
his sophomore style, and he never out
grew his habit OF over statement but
as /, stands ii is essentially his, ana
as such II has taken its place among
the epoch-making state papers OF the
world.
Tilt with John Adams
He might no doubt have remained
silent under the remark OF his Ola
friend and co-workeT OF Massachusetts
But silence was rarely his gift-espe-
cially when his vanity was wounded
So he wrote: The observations that
the Declaration contained no new IDEAS
that it is a commonplace compilation
ifs sentiments hackneyed in Congress
for two years before, and it's essence
contained in Otis's pamphlet, may ali
be true. OF that ! am not 10 be the
Judge. Otis's pamphlet l never saw
and whether l had gathered my IDEAS
from reading or reflection l do not
know. I know only that l turned 10
neither book nor pamphlet while writ
ing q. did not consider it as am
part Of my charge to invent new ideas
altogether and TO offer no sentiment
which had ever been expressed before
7 will say for Mr.. Adams, however that
he sIpported the Declaration with zeal
and ability, fighting fearlessiy for every
WORD OF IT," II must be admitted that
Mr.. Jefferson does not appear badly III
this little passage at arms. To-day
certainly no high minded American
would have had the author Of the Dec
Iaration answer otherwise, or would
have had his concluding paragraph,
which welded ndissolubly together
the thirteen colonies, changed from
the words in which he framed and
signed it:
We, therefore. the Representatives
! Of the United States of America, in
J General Congress assembled, appeal
| ing 10 the Supreme Judge of the world
! for the reCtitude Of our intentions, 90
! I'm the name, and by authority or the
good people of these colonies, solenmiy
Publish and declare, that these united
| colonies are. and of right ought TO be-
/ free and independent states; that they
are absolved from all allegiance to the
! British Crown, and that all political
! connection between them and the State
! of Great Britain Is, and ought TO be,
! totally dissolved: and that as free and
| independent States, they have full
power to- levy var, conclude peace
contract alliances, establish commerce
and to do all other acts and Things
which Independent States may or right
do. And for the support Of this Decla-
| ration. with firm reliance on the pro-
| tection of Divine Providence, we NUT
| ually pledge each other our lives, our
| fortunes. and our sacred honour.
II requires a profound conviction to
present 10 this audience such remarks
concerning this Declaration and Its
| author. Even then 1t requires some
rashness TO assume that they can he
welcome, or even tolerated II | were
| I'm my first year in official residence at
! this court instead Of the eighth, / fee!
| sure that should not venture upon It.
But l have had too many and too
varied experiences AS TO the breadth Of
British political thinking and the gen.
! erous hospitality with which Britons
regard all political opinion different
{ from their own, and particularly all
honest political opinion from any
branch of their own race. to hesitate
even at what must at first sight seem
like the canonization, in your own land
and at your own shrines, Of one who
| struck as powerful a blow against the
British Empire of that day as any man
within its vast extent or throughout
its long and glorious history.
Blow for British Rights.
But the blow was not against the
British people. 1t was jOr British
rights and British freedom at home as
| well as across the seas. That view has
been so often presented by your own
| writer's that it may now be treated as
widely accepted. No one has Of late
put II forward more gracefully or more
| persuasively than the present Lord
President Of the Council, Lord Morley.
This young man who wrote the
Declaration at the age OF thirty-three,
without ever having been out OF his
native colonies, and not much even out
of the one in which he was born, after
| a subsequent career crowded with con-
spicuous duties and honors, and half a
century later, looked back over his
| whole life and selected, as We have
seen, the three things he had done by
which ne wished 10 be remembered, and
! which ne wished recorded on his tomb
stone. Two were the work of his youth,
the statute for Religious Freedom In
T. .--H..aH