Evening star., 1933-01-01
MACAU[AY DER|DED
JEFFERSON IDEALS
Baron's Letter to American
Friend Predicted Ruination
by Democracy.

tereStlng letJer, Written 10 an American
friend, in 1857. copy of which has
been sent to The Star by William Lit
tauer of New York, a former member Of
Congress.
The epistle contains several fore
shadowings Of later developments in the
life of the American people. Apparently,
it was penned in explanation of criti-
cisYn Of Thomas Jefferson. At the time.
Lord Macaulay was at the height of his
great intellectual powers. He only re-
Gently has been raised to the peerage.
Two years and q few months later he
died Of a sudden heart seizure, Decem-
ber %, 1859.
The text of the letter follows:
LONDON, May %, 1857.
Dear sir: You are surprised to learn
that I have not a high opinion of Mr..
jefferson, and / am surprised at your
surprise. 1 am certain that / never
wrote line and never in Parliament,
in conversation, or even on the hust-
ings, place where it is the fashion to
court the populace, uttered word in
dieating the opinion that the supreme
authority in a state ought to be en-
trusted, to the majority of citizens told
by the heads; in other words, to the
poorest and most ignorant Of society.
I have long been convinced that insti-
tutions purely democratic must, sooner
or later, destroy liberty or civilization,
or BOTH
Cites French Democracy.
In Europe, where the population Is
dense, the effect of such institutions
would be almost instantaneous. What
happened lately in France is an ex-
Tn dan1npTanu Was
established there. During a short time
there was strong reason to expect
general spoilation, a national bank
ruptcy, a new partition of the soil, a
maximum of prices, a ruinous load of
taxation laid on the rich for the pur-
pose of supporting the poor in idlenesS.
Such a system would, in 20 years, have
made France as poor and as barbarous
as the France of the Carloyingians.
Happily, the danger was averted and
now there is despotism, a silent
tribune, an enslaved press, liberty is
gone, but civilization has been saved.
I have not the smallest doubt that II
we had a purely democratic govern
ment here. the effect would be the
same. Either the poor would plunder
the rich and civilization would perish,
or order and property would be saved
by a strong military government, and
liberty would perish.
American Fate Certain"
You may think that your country
enjoys an exemption from these evils;
will frankly own to you that I am
of a very different opinion. Your fate
I believe to be certain, though 1t Is
deferred by a physical cause. As long
as you have boundless extent OF fer
tile and unoccupied land, your labor
ing population will be far more at ease
than the laboring population OF the Old
World; and while 1t is the case, the
Jeffersonian policy may continue to
exist without causing any fatal calar1-
ity. But the time will come when
New England will be as thickly peopled
as old England. Wages will be as low
and will fiuctuate as much With you
as with us. You will have your Man
chesters and Birminghams; hundreds
and thousands Of artisans will assured
ly be some times out of work. Then
your institutions win be fairly brought
to the test. Distress everywhere makes
the laborer mutinous and discontented
and inclines him to listen with eager
ness to agitators who tell him that 1t
is monstrous iniquity that one man
should have a million, while another
cannot get a full meal. In bad years
there is plenty of grumbling here and
S.metimes a little rioting. But 1t
matters little, for here the sufferers are
not the rulers. The supreme power Is
Ii the hands Of a class, numerous in
deed, but selected of an educated class,
of class which is, and knows itself
to be, deeply interested in the security
of property and the maintenance Of
order. Accordingly, the n1alcontents
are firmly yet gently restrained. The
bad time is got over without robbing
the wealthy to relieve the INDECENT.
The springs of national prosperity soon
begin to flow again; work is plentiful;
wages rise and all is tranquility and
cheerfulness.
Foretells Critical Seasons.
I have seen England three or four
times pass through such critical seasons
as have described Through such sea-
sons the United States will have to pass
in the course of the next century, If not
Of this. How will you pass through
them? I heartily wish you good deliv-
erance, but my reason and my wishes
are at war and cannot help foreboding
the worst. 1t is quite plain that your
Government will never be able to re-
majority. For with you the majority is
the Government, and has the rich, who
are always minority, absolutely at its
mercy. The day will come when in
the State of New York, multitude of
people none of whom has had more
than half breakfast or expects to have
more than half a dinner, will choose
the Legislature. Is it possible to doubt
what sort of Legislature will be chosen?
On one side is statesman preaching
patience, respect for vested rights,
strict observance Of public faith. On
the other is a demagogue ranting about
tyranny of capitalists and usurers and
asking why anybody should be permit
ted to drink champagne and to ride
in a carriage while thousands of hon.
est people are in want of necessities
Which of the two candidates is likely to
be preferred by workingman who
hears his children cry for bread?
mo Anchor" In Constitution.
I seriously apprehend that you will in
some such season Of adversely as I have
described do things which will prevent
prosperity from returning; that you will
act like people in a year of scarcity,
oevour all the seed corn and thus make
the next year not of scarcity but of alb
solute distress. The distress will pro-
duce fresh spoliation. There is nothing
to stay you. Your Constitution is all sail
and no anchor As l said before, when
society has entered on this downward
progress, either civilization or liberty
must perish Either some Caesar or
Napoleon will seize the reins Of govern
nent with strong hand or your Re-
public will be as fearfully plundered
and laid waste by barbarians in the
twentieth century as the Roman Empire
was in the fifth; with this difference.
that the Huns and Vandak who raw
aged the Roman Empire came from
without and that your Huns and Van
Gals will have been engendered within
. your country by your own institutions.
Thinking this, of course I cannot
xeckon Jefferson among the benefac-
tors of mankind.
DnncEHTI NnnERTuED