The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1921-07-02
A WORLDDOCuMENT

lit INllON SlOiiHVu ny wv dN'oi'hOH VI HN
American Declaration of Independence marks
the peak Of political progress The notion that
we have advanced since the days Of Jefferson IS
supported only by our cgotsm. There is not
man living today who could net, with profit TO
himself and those whom he serves, go back to The
Sage of Monticello for instruction.
AT no other period from the birth of Abraham
to the present could it have been possible for a
ton to adopt this particular declaration and dedi-
cate itself to the principles therein announced, 1t
was a peculiar time-one of those critical epochs
of history when conditions are ripe for great
lions For years the world had known little but
war and oppression Abuses had fastened in the
vitals of the nations. Great Britain was in the
grasp of sordid commercial ambition. France had
gone through most Of the stages of degeneraoy-
through the proAigatc reign of Louis XIV
through The desperate wars Of Louis XIV and
had entered the ll-fater rule of Louis XVI,
But the abuses Of the times had generated the
remedy. Deprived of the power of action by
imperial force, men had brooded in private, and
great thoughts had been born. john Locke in
EiSldIiU ldu investigated llC SOuINSS VI SNfCiH-
mental authority. A host of French writers, like
Montaign, Montesquieu and Moliere had brought
before the publit new conceptions Of the dspravi-
ties of the times, and opened new vistas Of progress
possible under human liberty. Others, like Vol
tare and Rousseau had gone directly to the point,
and undermined the very citdel of absolutism 1t
has been said that the Encyclopedias made the
French revolution it is equally true that they
made the American revolution what 1t was
America was fortunate in having men stepped
in this learning and fred with the spirit Of liberty.
There was Benjamin Franklin the scf-taught
individualist, who had traversed all the realms Of
science There was Thomas Paine, the bluff
iconoclast. who possessed the power, not exceeded
since Swift, of making great thoughts the property
of the common mind There were the Henrys,
the Lees. the Masons, and scores of others who
had tasted Of this new and radical philosophy and
found it pleasant. And. greatest of all, there
was Jefferson.
Wise, calm, subtle-mnded, bold, far-sighled,
persuasive and always in deadly earnest himself,
Jefferson had gone TO the Anglo-Saxon and French
formulated the maxims upon which, as he believed,
a democracy could achieve happiness and human
well being such as the world had never known
before And here in this western world, where
natures bountes had been preserved unsuled,
was the place CT all others 10 make the great ex-
pertinent.
To Hamilton, the declaration of independence
meant commercial opportunities, chance to rival
the mother country in power TO Jefferson ii meant
human opportunities, and chance 10 establish
government upon a higher basis than ii had ever
occupied before, the basis OF the consent of The
governed Ii meant chance to re-slate The lunc-
ton of government, which through the ages had
been TO control the people and prescribe tbelr
privileges, and make ii thereafter 10 protect the
people in the exercise Of the ina!icnablc rights
Those conceptions were embodied in The dcclar-
alton of independence. They SET before the reyolu-
tionary soldier higher goal than any for which
previous armies had strivcn. They presented 10 the
Imagination such d visicu Of life as to make death