Evening star., 1942-04-26

definitely decreed that ours should be
democratic republic.
Thus he was the pensman in the war
for national independence; he was the
leader in the demand he popularized for
a Bill of Rights in the Constitution he
took the gag from the lips of freemen;
he struck the shackles from the press;
he cleared the way to the platform of
popular assemblies; he drew a magic
circle around the cabins of the lowly
and buttressed the poorest in the courts
with the protection of the law.
And he did something more-he drew
the Ordinance of Religious Freedom
which ranks with the Declaration of In
dependence, and gives to every man the
sacred right to worship God according
to the dictates Of his conscience.
Some years ago, at Monticello, on
day dedicated to religious freedom,
witnessed a scene that symbolzed his
life. There I listened to a Catholic
priest, a Protestant minister and
Jewish rabbi pay tribute to the out
standing champion of religious freedom
in our history, and I saw them march
shoulder to shoulder from the mansion
on the hill to lay q wreath on the grave
of the common benefactor of us all.
Now all this is sneeringly assailed by
totalitarian gunmen denouncing liberty
and democracy and threatening their
determination. The idea of the new
order" is as old as tyranny. In the
dark days of our Revolution there were
some in Virginia who despaired Of the
processes OF democracy and proposed a
dictator with arbitrary power over life
and property. And again Jefferson
fought for the principles of government
by consent.
His comments then might have been
written yesterday. A dictator? In
Gods name, from whence have they
derived this power? A leader may be
offered but not impose himself, nor be
imposed upon them Much less can
their necks be submitted to his sword
their breath be taken at his will or
caprice"
Thus JefferSons Preamble to the Dec
laration is a damnation of totalitarian-
ism, and is applicable today; the Bill
of Rights he demanded is an indictment
of the dictators of today; his Ordinance
Of Religious Freedom is an arraignment
of the racial and religious intolerance
and persecution in nations now under
the iron heel of despots.
His words live because they are time
less in their application and eternal in
their truth.
In these days of incredible fantasies
and savage ideologies, with the lies Of
poisonous propaganda momentarily con-
fusing the average mind. I often turn
to jefferson and find the heartening
language of the Americanism for which
generations of our forebears fought,
wrought and died. Here we have il
Illuminated the path of patriotic duty,
And every word is a summons to the
people TO the protection of the heritage
of freedom-a ringing call TO militant
resistance to the loathsome creed that
any man, by virtue of his cruelty, men,
dacity and crimes, may mount and ride
on the backs of his fellow men over
the sacred things Of life.
When, with his dying breath, John
Adams said: Thomas jefferson still
lives" he spoke for the ages. For the
spirit of liberty, like the words Of the
Holy Man. do not perish with the
prophet, but survive him" Again hu-
manity meets a crisis, and again JEFF
ferson carries the torch to light the way
through darkness to the dawn of a
new day of the freedom for which he
gave his genius and his life.