The Chattanooga news. [volume] (Chattanooga, Tenn.) 1891-1939, 1920-09-18
Jefferson S Many Sided Genius
ShO1gn i'm Judge S1ganey,S Book
Safeguards of Liberty Just From Press Reveals Inva
liable Contributions of Sage of Monticello to Build
ing of American Institutions

I offenses, and liberal and pervasive
system OF education.
The state was not yet ready TO 'assim-
| late all these changes, but readily in
corporated them in it's bill Of rights"
| II was only after a bitter fight that en-
tail and primogeniture were written into
| the statutes, however; year after year
another of the revolutionary ideas OF
the author OF the declaration was en-
| ACTED into law, until at the time OF his
death only the measure in regard IL
slavery was not law.
"MIne OF Wealth."
Mr.. Madison's comment on Jeffer-
sons proposals was that they were "a
mine of legislative wealth and a mode
o; statutory composition, containing not
single superhuous word, and pre-
ferring always words and phrases OF a
meaning fixed as much as possible by
oracular treatises or solemn adjudica-
tons" Mr.. Jefferson himself considered
that the effect OF the bills would be
thus: "The repeal OF the laws of en-
tail would prevent the accumulation and
perpetuation OF wealth in select fami-
lies; the abolition of primogeniture and
equal partition of inheritances removed
the feudal and unnatural distinctions
which made one member Of every fam
lily rich and all the rest poor; the resto-
ration OF the rights of conscience re-
lieved the people from taxation for the
support of a religion not theirs" and
the people would, by the bill for gen
eral education be qualified to under
stand their rights, to maintain them,
and to exercise with intelligence their
parts in self government, and all this
would be effected without the violation
or a single natural right of any one in
diYidual citizen"
The passage Of time has proved the
truth of each of the ideas back of each
OF Mr. Jefferson's bills. Had it not been
Tor his brilliant and relentlessly logical
brain, we might have been decades
longer coming to the same acknowledge
ment OF individual rights which we now
have. But the author of these statutes
which have meant so much for the ma
ton by no means intended them all to
remain as he drafted them.
Approved Proper Change.
Read what he says. as qouted by
Judge Swaney. in regard to constitu-
tional change:
Some men look at constitutions with
sanctimonious reverence and deem them
like the ark of the covenant, too sacred
to be touched. They ascribe to the men Of
the preceding age wisdom more than
human, and suppose what they did to be
beyond amendment. / knew that age
IT. 1t deserved well of it's country. 1t
was very like the present, but without
the experience of the present. and forty
years of experience in government is
worth a century OF book reading: and
this they would say themselves were
they to rise from the dead. We had
NOT yet penetrated to the mother prin-
ciple, that governments are republican
only In proportion as they embody the
viii of their people, and execute it,
l am certainly not an advo-
cate for frequent and untried changes
in laws and constitution. But
know. also, that laws and institutions
must go hand in hand with the prog
ress of the human mind. Let
us avail ourselves of our reason and
experience, to correct the crude essays
If this avenue be shut to the
call Of sufferance, it will make itself
heard through that Of foNce."
Believed In Press.
Mr.. Jefferson was a staunch advocate
of government by public opinion, and
for that public opinion, he deemed a
free and untrammelled press a neces-
sity He once Remarked "The basis of
our government being the opinion of
the people, the very first object should
be to keep that right; and were 1t left to
me to decide whether we should have
a government without newspapers. or
newspapers without a government l
should not hesitate a moment to prefer
the latter"
The few hundred pages of Judge
Swaney's book combine to give the
reader a better understanding of the
truly tremendous accomplishments of
Thomas Jefferson than he could obtain
in the same-cOmpass anywhere else. The
author is a believer In documentary evil
dence, and has collated in Safeguards
OF Liberty those essential documents
and quotations from jefferson. the va
rious declarations, statutes and char
ters, which show in their fullness the
true genius of the man who had in
scribed on his tomb the simple epitaph:
Here was buried Thomas jefferson,
author of the Declaration OF American
Independence, of the statute of Virginia