Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1917-01-11
many ErNNEREc JOURNAL THURSDAY, JANUARY IL, 1917.

what the laws had authorized and re-
ouired them to do. Precluded now from
this mode of justification. 1 adopt that
of publishing what was meant orlgl-
nally for the private eye of counsel"
Livinsston's Reply.
Jefferson's statement covers ITO
pages He was answered by Mr.. Eiv-
ingston in IT'S pages. Mr.. Livingston
opens his answer as follows:
when a public functionary abuses
his power by any act which bears on
the community. his conduct excites at
tention, provokes popular resentment
and seldom fails to receive the punish
ment it merits Should an individual be
chosen for the victim, little sympathy
is created for his sufferings. if the in
terest of all is supposed to be promoted
by the ruin of one. The gloss of zeal
for the public is therefore always
spread over acts of oppression. and the
people are sometimes made to consider
that as brilliant eXertion of energy
in their favour, which, when viewed in
it's true light, would be found a fatal
blow to their rights.
I'm no government Is this effect so
easily produced as in free republic:
party spirit inseparable from it's ex-
istence, there aids the illusion. and a
popular leader is allowed in many in
stances impunity. and sometimes re-
warded with applause for acts that
would make a tyrant tremble on his
throne. This evil must exist in de-
gree; il is founded in the natural laws
of human passions-but in wise and
| ;uht ho actr Md
and the consciousness that it must
exist will make such people more
watchful to prevent its abuse. These
reflections occur to one, whose propA
erty without trial or any of the forms
of law, has been violently seized by the
first magistrate of the Union-who has
hitherto vainly solicited an inquiry into
his title, who has seen the conduct of
his oppressor excused or applauded, and
who, in the book he is now about to
examine. finds an attempt openly to
justify that conduct upon principles as
dangerous as the act was illegal and
unjust"
have read both Mr.. Jefferson's sug-
gestions and Mr.. Livingston's answer,
and they arc well worth reading. Mr.
Jefferson's suggestions are labored
defense of what seems to me to have
been plainly indefensible action. He
sought, first, to show that Livingston
did not have the title to the land from
which he ousted him. but that 1t was
in some third person. an utterly INSULT
Gent defense because Mr.. Jefferson's
act could rest for justification on the
title of some other person but only on
of ba mi Ctate In
sorting the title of the United States,
he proceeded. with an industry most
commendable in better cause, to
quote from the law of France and
Spain on the subject of "Alluvial in
creases to river banks" and to show
that the title of the Batture was in
France and passed from France to the
United States.
Jefferson Left No Place to Stand.
The answer of Mr.. Livingston was,
as that staid old authority, the British
Encyclopedias, says. "a crushing one"
1t left Mr.. jefferson no place to stand
upon either in his argument that the
Batture belonged to the United States,
or in his claim that under the act of
Congress he was entitled to remove
y
The statute plainly had no relation to
one who had acquired his title before
its passage, or indeed to one who had
title such as Livingston had sus-
tanned by the decree of a competent
court, even though that decree was not
binding upon the United States as
party to it. The trenchant style, the
satire and the irony and the invective
of Livingston must be, read to be ap-
preciated One can well understand
how Chancellor Kent could write to Liv-
ingston felicitating him on the COM
plete demonstration of his right and
Mr.. JefferSon's wrong.
1 admire Thomas jefferson as
genius in many ways, as patriot. a
real Democrat, a promoter of educa-
, ton. the founder of the University of
Virginia, and a great statesman and
politician, but he does not appear at
his best in this Batture controversy
The special pleading of which he is
guilty. the Inconsistencies of the posi-
tons that he takes, his disingenuous
citations, leaving out important addi-
tons that would change the effect of
the citation as authority, are all
brought out by Mr.. Livingston with
clearness and force and with sincere
Indignation that manifested itself some
times in the keenest ridicule, and other
times in the most eloquent invective:
He closed his answer as follows:
Il now take my leave of Mr. Jeffer-
son. In my answer / have confined
myself to his book. Notwithstanding
the strong temptations which assailed
me almost in every page. l have stead
lily Kept within the boundaries of Just
land. / think. considering the wanton
attack a mild defense. My future con-
duct Will depend much on that OF nv
adversary. l shall continue to reply to
every argument that may be addressed
to the public on this subject. Knowing
that my cause is good, I do not de-
spair even with humble pretensions to
make its justice appear. For this pur-
pose | have always courted investiga-
ton; l should have preferred it in a
court of justice. but do not decline it
before the public.
Though some may condemn me only
on hearing the name Of my opponent.
there are many, very many in the ma
tion who have independence enough to
judge for themselves. and the ability
to decide with correctness-to such