The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1941-01-01
Nv O'BOYLE

Ten days before his death Thomas
kind was not born with saddles on
their backs, nor a favored few booted
and spurred ready to ride them legiti-
mately, by the grace of God" Those
words epitomize long efforts and ex-
press in focus life struggle against
the Hamilton, big business, big money,
main street thinking.
Jefferson believed men are good and
bad, that the pressure of society and
the restraints of government are more
likely to bring out the bad than to
develope the good. He saw social well
fare and social misery under aristo-
cratic government was sure to become
universal. His Independent spirit
hated and feared a privileged class not
only for its contempt for the common
man but also for its habit of living
at the expense of the under-privileged
Men hate their victims for no other
reason than that they injure them.
This thinking was derived by him
from Locke, whose words and ideas
he wrote into the declaration of indie
pendence. His omnivorous mind had
seized and made his own the best of
Hobbies, Harrington, Sidney and Milton.
He knew the works of Rousseau,
Montesquieu, Diderot and others. His
political philosophy is finally a mix
ture of English liberalism and French
humanitarianism. From that combi-
nation came his enumeration of mans
inherent rights to life, liberty and the
pursuit of happiness
The well-being of the individual was
the corner stone of Jefferson's philos-
ophy.
The well-being of the moneyed
classes was the corner stone of Ham
ilton's philosophy.
Jefferson's aim in all his action was
the rational happiness of the individ- |
ual. That was the end of all the |
measures he sponsored. He was |
proud in his later years especially of |
those acts which aimed to free the
individual from some form of law, or
custom, or superstition that made men
less free or less happy.
The Declaration of independence is
his writing. He led a movement that |
destroyed primogeniture and entail,
and established the equality of all
before the law. He wrote the statute
If Virginia for religious freedom. Be-
cause of him Capital punishment was
abandoned for all crimes but murder
md treason. He spoke for an en-
arged freedom of the press and for
study of all kind, especially scientific.
lie swore eternal hostility to all forms
If tyranny, religious, social, economic
,ver the minds of men.
Jefferson was an idealist. He
lreamed of better days. His nation
would be vastly agricultural. The
arm would be the basis of wealth, of
virtue, of happiness. His government
vas to have been limited in power,
sufficient merely for order and de-
ense of its subjects and responsive
o them. 1t was to come into being
Ind remain so only by the consent of
he governed. The people have the
light under God to do whatsoever they
yilled. The spirit of the man de-
handed that at all times human ma |
ure adequately understood in all of I
is relationships be the norm of all {
ocial activity.
Wide spread discussion by all I
lasses of people of all subjects, re-
Igious, economic, social, political can
fleet the comparison of all current
1eas with this norm. To Jefferson a
equisite of intelligent decision and |
ction would in the words of John :
Dewey, dean of American philosophers ]
o the understanding of the forces I
t work of their direction and of the I
oal to which they point" (
Early the Westerners of Tennessee,
lentucky, north of the Ohio and be-
ond the Missouri accepted these prin- s
iples and guided by them restrained a
ne influence of the commercial class s
nd relaxed the Strengthening control n
the wealthy landowners. t
Then came Jackson. Behind him
ere two forces, the western agra s
ans and the rising labor classes of
~