An idle hour in life's pilgrimage

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AN IDLE HOUR

IN

LIFE'S PILGRIMAGE

BY

J. M. LOWE.

FOR PRIVATE DISTRIBUTION ONLY

KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI,
MAY, 1906.

An Idle Hour in Life's Pilgrimage

FOR PKIVATE DISTRlBUriON ONLY.

William Lowe and Robert Lowe, of England, first
settled in Virp-inia.j Robert never married and died
there, rcpnted quite wealthy. This is tradition. William
Lowe was in the United States Army under Gov. St.
Clair and was in St. Clair's defeat at Miami, Ohio.
Afterwards settled in Pendleton County, Kentucky, three
miles southwest of Morgan Station, ten miles south of
Falmouth, on the K. C. R. R., and married Nancy Jones,
daughter of Joshua Jones, of Harrison County. She had
three brothers, Louis, Evan and John Jones. (I have
long intended looking up this Jones family.) William
and Nancy had ten children ; raised eight, to-wit : Squire,
Jerry, Louis, Moses, Robert, Nancy, Marksberry and
Elizabeth, all of whom I remember well.

Moses Lowe was married to Nancy Watson Porter
in 1824 in Pendleton County and raised ten children.
Moses Lowe, like his father, was a farmer. Lie was for
years a justice of the county court. Died in 1857.

Robert Porter was born in Pennsylvania in 1750
and settled in Kentucky. Died in 1826 in Pendleton
County, Kentucky. He was a soldier in the Army of
the Revolution for seven years, with Washington. Lie
married Elizabeth Watson and had seven children, to-
wit: John, Thomas, Watson, Andrew and William,
Alargaret and Elizabeth.

. w, and N. Division 3—525,

DEPAETMENT OF THE INTERIOR.
Bureau of Pensions,
Washington, D. C, ,

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you will find below the desired information as contained in nis (&^=M-8i
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Datbs of

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Rank

OFFICERS UNDER WHOM SERVICE WAS RENDERED

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Commissioner,

Thomas Porter married ^lary Oder and had nine
children, to-wit : Sally, Elizal)eth, Polly, Margaret,
Robert, Rufus, Joseph, William and Nancy Watson.
Nancy was born on the ''Kingston" creek, in Bourbon
County, in 1807. Was married to A'loses Lowe in 1824.
She was seventeen and he nineteen years of age. They
raised ten children : W^illiam Thomas, Francis Marion,
James Franklin, Richard Montgomery, Georgie Anna,
Moses, John Watson, Joseph M., Margaret and Mary
Jane.

The probability is that Robert Porter of Revolu-
tionary fame was a brother of Governor Andrew Por-
ter of Pennsylvania. Robert Porter named his first son
born after the war Andrew. Andrew was married
twice. Flis first wife was a Widow Morris and his sec-
ond was Mary Pollard. He had three boys and one
girl. She married a Wayman. The boys were machin-
ists and lived in Cynthiana, Ky. Watson Porter moved
to Iowa in an early day and settled near Mt. Pleasant.
John Watson, a brother to Great Grandmother Porter,
and after whom my brother was named, lived in Cin-
cinnati and his family used often to visit the old folks
in Kentucky. One of Watson Porter's sons, to-wit.
Col. Asbury Porter, was colonel of the Fourth Iowa
Cavalry in the Civil War. Mrs. Dr. McClure and Major
Beckwith's wife, of Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, are his daugh-
ters.

Uncle Ben Asbury and Aunt Polly were married
in Kentucky in 18 — and moved to Iowa in 18 — . They
raised five children, to-wit : Thomas P. Asbury, Ben-

jr.min, Mary P. and William Henry Harrison

Asbury, of Ottumwa, Iowa. He, too, was in the Fed-
eral Army. Indeed, it runs in the bloocj/ never to let
a chance slip to take a hand in whatever is going on.

Robert probably had a brother in Virginia and the
following is his military record :

5

Wt. No. 2895.

Council Chamber, 5th April, 1784.
I do certify that Thomas Porter is entitled to the
proportion of land allowed a sergeant of the Continental
line for three years' service.

Benjamin Harrison,
Thomas Meriwether.

A warrant for 200 acres issued to Thomas Porter,
8th April, 1784.

Land Office, Richmond, Va.
I hereby certify that the foregoing is a true copy
from the records of this office. Witness my hand and
seal of office, this 19th day of February, 1900.

Jno. W. Richardson,
Register of the Land Office.

There is an interesting tradition of the departure
of Preston Kennett and his wife Margaret (Porter)
Kennett from Falmouth, Ky., for the ''Far Wes^."
This must have been about the year 1800. It is that
they loaded a canoe with the small necessaries of fron-
tier life and rowed away down the Licking river to the
Ohio at Cincinnati, thence down the Ohio, whose ban.ks
were infested with hostile Indians, and up the Missis-
sippi to St. Louis. What hardihood! What nerve!
What magnificent courage ! Is it remarkable that such
environment should produce a race of heroes ? I remem-
ber well hearing the story that when Robert Porter was
away in the army, where he spent seven of the best
years of his life to establish a free country, his w^ife.
Great Grandmother Elizabeth, had to live in a fort at
Lexington on account of the Indians. That on one occa-
sion, when out looking for her cow, she stopped to
gather some wild grapes, and, climbing the trunk of a
fallen tree, she discovered an Indian sneaking up on the
other side. She jumped down and then began a race for
life, but she beat him to the fort. The Indian was

afterward captured and recognized her. Is it any won-
der that Margaret would bravely face frontier dangers
and hardships? Is it any wonder that Grandfather
Thomas Porter should be found with "Mad" Anthony
Wayne, retrieving the terrible disaster which overtook
the unfortunate St. Clair? ''The Wilderness Road" does
not exhaust the material for historical novels.

The children of Preston Graves Kennett and Mar-
garet Porter Kennett were :

First, Luther M. Kennett, born 1807, died in 1873,
while living in Paris, France. He was Mayor of St.
Louis prior to i860, was a member of Congress, and
lived with his family in Paris from 1866 to 1873, the
date of his death. He left several children.

Second, Mortimer Kennett, born 1809, died 1879.

Third, Ferdinand Kennett, born 181 3, died 1861.
He built ''Kennett Castle," 33 miles south of St. Louis.
This magnificent "castle," said to be finer than anything
this side of the Rhine, is built upon a high promontory
and from the turrets the Mississippi can be seen for
many miles. It is surrounded by a magnificent estate of
4,500 acres, and R. Graham Frost, Congressman from
St. Louis, who married Lottie K., one of the daughters
of Ferdinand, formerly lived here.

Fourth, Susan Margaret, born in 1823, and is still
living. She is the widow of John Simonds.

Fifth, Nancy K.

Sixth, Oscar.

Seventh, Ann Louisa.

Eighth, Eupheme.

Ninth, Caroline.

Tenth, Elizabeth.

The Kennetts, Luther M. and Ferdinand, built and
owned the famous shot tower in St. Louis.

Grandfather Porter and John Porter married
sisters, to-wit : Grandmother Mary Oder and
Nancy Oder, and lived on Raven's Creek, in

Harrison County, Kentucky. Mary and Nancy's
father and mother were pioneers from Vir-
ginia. They both hved to extreme old age. The hus-
band was totahy both Wind and deaf in his later life,
and both were ill and approaching the dark river at the
same time, but the wife beat him across. The only way
the attendants could convey the intelligence to the af-
flicted husband w^as to carry her to his bedside and place
his hand upon her cold brow. He said : ''She only beat
me a few hours. Do not bury her until I am ready;"
and sure enough he soon followed, and thus these two
loving souls were not even parted in death, and were
buried in a single grave.

Joseph M. Lowe was born in Pendleton County,
Kentucky, December 13th, 1844, and married to Mary
Elizabeth McWilliams on the 15th day of March, 1876,
in Clinton County, Missouri, and have two children,
John Roger and Florence Marion.

Watson Porter, mother's uncle, married Elizabeth
Barnett, daughter of Elder George Barnett, of Millers-
burg, Ky.

Andrew Porter's first wife was a Widow Morris.
His second wife was Mary Pollard, of Cynthiana.

I do not know whom William married.

Grandfather Porter and Grandmother Porter were
members of the Brushy Fork church, near Millersburg,
Ky., — Baptists. Elder George Barnett was their preacher.
Grandmother Lowe always attended Old Point Pleasant
Baptist church, near the old Lowe homestead in Pen-
dleton County, Kentucky. Old "Daddy" Monroe was
the preacher. Grandmother Lowe was a Baptist in belief,
but her people were Methodists. She always attended
on Saturday, but on Sunday she remained at home to
superintend the dinner for company. As I remember
her, she was above the medium height, well formed and
was always a very handsome woman. Even in her old
days, when perfectly blind, she was still a handsome,

8

digniiied, patient, lovable woman. She made her home
with father and mother, and so warm was the attach-
ment between mother and her that not a cross word was
ever known to pass between them — and the same was
true of all of our family, so much did we love and re-
spect her. I remember that I always regarded her as a
woman immensely above and beyond the ordinary. She
had a way of doing the most commonplace things in a
superior way, so that the act acquired a new and differ-
ent meaning from that ordinarily bestowed. I can see
her now approach her "reticule," that depository of im-
mense depth and fabulous wealth which always hung
at the head of her bed, and, diving intO' its innermost
depths, she would bring forth candy and sugar and be-
stow it in a way — it seemed to me — to purchase a king-
dom. 1 remember her funeral, though I was quite a
child, and how it all seemed to break poor mother's
heart. I was thirteen years of age when father died, on
the 31st day of October, 1857. As I remember him, he
was of medium size, compactly built, square shouldered
and straight as an Indian. He was a quiet, self-poised
gentleman, universally esteemed by everyone. I do not
remember ever to have heard one cross word between
him and mv mother. I never saw him in ill humor Init
once and that was when the sheriff and posse brought
a man Ijy the name of Greene before him at our house
for preliminary trial. Green was charged with coun-
terfeiting, and 1 remember when the attorneys insisted
on an immediate hearing how indignant father became
at the suggestion that a criminal trial should be held
in the presence of his family, and, ordering his horse,
he set off to the county seat with the whole cavalcade
following. To my youthful imagination he was greater,
because leader, than all of them. I can see him now
as he sat his horse, a very Napoleon in appearance. He
was the very soul of old-fashioned hospitality. And
what crowds I have seen gather at our house ! All the

9

family were musicians, and I can hear mother's sweet,
clear, ringing voice singing down all the years that have
gone, those grand old songs : ''How Firm a Founda-
tion," "White Pilgrim," and one, the name of which
I never knew, and never heard anyone else sing it, but
fragments of which still linger in my memory, though
in no connected form :

''When for eternal worlds we steer
And seas are calm and skies are clear
And faith in lively exercise,
On distant hills of Caanan rise,
Oh, then for joy she spreads her wings.
And loud her lovely sonnet sings :

Vain world, adieu ; Vain world, adieu,
And loud her lovely sonnet sings,
Vain world, adieu."

Another sadlyi sweet song, which I suppose has
passed out of print — at least out of any modern col-
lection of songs — began :

"Oh sing to me of Heaven

When I am called to die.
Sing" songs of holy ecstacy.

To waft my soul on high. '

Around my lifeless clay,

Assemble those I love^
And sing of Heaven, Delightful Heaven,
My glorious home above."

Etc., Etc.

''I Would Not Live Always" was another. In No-
vem.ber, 1895, when nearly 89 years of age, she was
heard singing "Nearer, My God, To Thee" when alone
in her room. Poor, deiar, sweet soul! Yonder she
sits while I pen these lines, in her Kentucky home,
clothed in absolute darkness and deafness. All the joys
of life departed, save the memory of those earlier and
happier days. She is a member of the Disciples, or
Christian church. After long years of absence, I vis-
ited her in November of 1895. Long years of con-

10

flict with the world had planted furrows in my brow and
.sorrows in my heart, and I, a scarred and calloused man
of 50, had forgotten largely the tender affections of
earlier days, until I felt the pressure of her feebltl
arms once more around my neck, and heard her call
me over and over again, "My Baby! My Baby!" Then
I appreciated, as never before, the wondrous strength
and endurance of a mother's love. Time nor distance,
prosperity or adversity, made no difference. What to
her the fact that I was 50 years old, with grown chil-
dren of my own? To her I was a baby still, and her
baby!

Science may sound the depths of the ocean; meas-
ure the stars in their courses; even — were it possible —
fix the limits of limitless space, but who shall drop the
plummet into the deeper depths of a mother' si love?
Mathematics and rhetoric are alike useless in such a
task. There is a wideness in such a love which, like
God's mercy, extends from the throne of Heaven to the
outer rim of the universe. There is a depth like God's
love, which extends far below the deepest deep.

We, the boys and hands, always had a half holiday
on Saturday, and oh, how we did look forward to this
day. which we usually spent in fishing in Jack Hand's
mill pond on Fork Lick, and sometimes in the Licking
river. But Hand's mill pond — the old swimming hole.
What fun it was ! Why can't a boy ht a boy forever
and go a-swimming? There was the largest weeping
willow in the front ])asture near the old orchard, near
Grandma Lowe's old home, thaft I havei ever; seen.
What fun I have had in its branches. Grandma Lowe,
when returning from school, broke off a twig and stuck
it in the grround and it sfrew into a tree at least nine
feet in circumference. A school girl ! Try to think
of it ! Here she lived, and loved, and married grand-
father, who lived about half a mile to the southwest.
And father found mother, a school girl, a half mile

II

to the southwest of this. Then after their marriage
and the death of both grandfathers, father bought both
the Jones and Porter farms, built a new house just
east of the "Sugar Camp" and nearly midway between
the Jones and the Porter house, and here they reared
a large family and here both grandmothers died. If
the Jones orchard furnished the largest willow and the
sweetest apples, the Porter place supplied the juiciest
pears and the largest blackberries. And the old' sugar
camp! What times we had making the spiles and the
troughs, tapping the trees, gathering the water. Some-
times we would have to carry the water and boil all
night. At such times, some of the neighbor boys and
girls would come in and what romps we would have!
The sugar house was a long, low, log building, with
a row of kettles set in a furnace through the middle of
the house. The first kettle was an immensel)^ large
one. Then came three or four smaller ones and last,
the smallest one of all, in which we ''stirred off." In
boiling sugar water, you dip from the first kettle back,
beginning next to the smallest, which sits over the hot-
test place in the furnace, near the chimney. In this
night work, somebody's hen roost was sure to be visited,
both for the chickens and eggs, just for the fun there
was in it. And then the sugar! No sand or other
impurity in it. What a delight on a moonlight night, in
early spring to stand alone with God in the forest and
listen to the gentle rhythm of the water distilling from
the trees and falling with such a sweet cadence in a
gentle drip, drip, drip, into the troughs. What soiil
is not enriched by such an experience.

A few years ago I visited this old home, and the
iconoclastic hand of greed had cut down this consecrated
willow and destroyed the old sugar orchard. How my
soul revolted at such a sacrilege! The old; family
graveyard, with its tall, white, quaking asp trees (a
species of silver poplar) were intact, the leaves of which

12

are always in motion, although no air may be stirring-.
I was always afraid of them, even though they were
pretty, and the dead of long, long ago are still sleeping
beneath their shade.

This old home was in the family for one hundred
years — until 1856. It ought to have so remained for-
ever. The old homestead ! What memories cluster
around it ! Here should ever be the Mecca of every
member of the family for successive generations. Alas,
"The Old Homestead," ''The Family Roof Tree,'' has
passed into poesy and song- — indeed, has been drama^
tized ; ])ut how few remain to vouch the realty of the
picture ! I doubt if any rural home remains in all Scot-
land to authenticate ''Cotter's Saturday Night" and the
''Old Kentucky Home" is a splendid and true picture
of a splendid and a happier civilization; but it exists
onlv in sons: now and on canvas.

Standing by this old graveyard my mind recurred
to the sadly beautiful poem which Lincoln loved so
well :

"Oh. why should the spirit of mortal be proud?
Like a swift fleeting meteor; a fast flying cloud.
A flash of the lightning; a break of the wave,
Man passeth from life to his rest in the grave.

The leaves of the oak and the willow shall fade,
Be scattered around and together be laid ;
And the young and the old, and the low and the high,
Shall moulder to dust and together shall lie.

The infant a mother attended and loved;
The mother that infant's affection who proved;
The husband that mother and infant who blessed,
Each, all, are away to the dwellings of rest.

The maid on whose cheek, on whose brow, in whose eye
Shone beauty and pleasure — her triumphs are by;
And the memory of those who loved her and praised,
Are alike from the minds of the living erased.'

The hand of the king that the sceptre hath borne ;
The brow of the priest that the mitre hath worn ;
The eye of the sage and the heart of the brave.
Are hidden and lost in the depths of the grave.'

13

The peasant whose lot was to sow and to reap ;
The herdsman who climbed with his goats up the steep;
The beggar who wandered in search of his bread,
'Have faded away like the grass that we tread;

'The saint who enjoyed the communion of heaven;
The sinner who dared to remain unforgiven ;
The wise and the foolish, the guilty and just.
Have quietly mingled their bones in the dust.'

So the multitude goes, like the flower or the weed,
That withers away to let others succeed ;
So the multitude comes, even those we behold.
To repeat every tale that has often been told.'

We see the same sights our fathers have seen ;
We drink the same stream and view the same sun.
For we are the same our fathers have been ;
And run the same course our fathers have run.

The thoughts we are thinking our fathers would think;
From the death we are shrinking our fathers would shrink ;
To the life we are clinging they also would cling;
But it speeds for us all, like a bird on the wing.

They loved, but the story we cannot unfold ;

They scorned, but the heart of the haughty is cold ;

They grieved, but no wail from their slumbers will come ;

They joyed, but the tongue of their gladness is dumb.

They died, ay ! they died ; and we things that are now.
Who walk on the turf that lies over their brow,
Who make in their dwelling a transient abode.
Meet the things that they met on their pilgrimage road.

'Yea ! hope and despondency, pleasure and pain,
We mingle together in sunshine and rain;
And the smiles and the tears, the song and the dirge,
Still follow each other like surge upon surge.

'Tis the wink of an eye, 'tis the draught of a breath.
From the blossom of health to the paleness of death,
From the gilded saloon to the bier and the shroud —
Oh, why should the spirit of mortal be proud.'

Here oitr grandparents lived, and loved, and died;
and here they sleep. Oh, so sweetly !

"Dark clouds may arise and loud thunders may roll,
And gathering storms may arise ;
But calm are their feelings, at rest are their souls.
The tears are all wiped from their eyes."

14

Many incidents, pathetic and ludicrous, I recall of
early boyhood, but not sufficiently different from other
childish experiences to justify their mention. Father
had a veiy keen sense of the ludicrous and a warm ap-
preciation of wit and humor. He kept a man employed
on the farm, I always believed, as much for the pleasure
of his orig-inal wit, as his', services, and how many
pages I could till with the ludicrous and witty sayings
of George Harrison! This untutored child of nature,
with the imagination of a Nasby and the wit of a Twain,
has long since laughed in the face of the grim monster
and gone to join the silent majority. He regarded life
as a great joke. I doubt if he took death seriously.
He was a man of infinite jest; of most excellent fancy.
His flashes of merriment always set the table in a roar,
and at such times I have seen the tears stream down
fathers face, while his body shook with uncontrollable
laughter.

During the first hundred years of this country's
history to be a farmer was to be a gentleman. The
aristocracy — if aristocracy it may be called — lived in the
country, and followed agricultural pursuits. England
was contem]>tuously referred to as a nation of "shop-
keepers." The farmer had money to loan — indeed, no
one else had. The attractions of country life were such
that no one except the shopkeeper thought of living
in town.

Adjoining the old farm lived ''Aunt Peggy" Draper.
She was not om* aunt, but we children did not know it.
Her first husband was James Moore, sheriff of Pendle-
ton county, and among her children was Captain Thomas
M. Moore, with whom I volunteered in 1862. After her
first husband's death, she married Draper, and after
his death, she married Robert Makenson. She was
mother's life-long friend, and a better mother, friend
and neighbor, God never 9;ave .to an,yone. Captain
Thomas was elected circuit clerk and in 1862 raised a

'5

company of his neighbors' boys and joined the Con-
federacy and served with distinguished credit to the
close of the war. A braver, truer, more manly man
never drew a sword or fired a gun. His w^as always
the post of danger, where shoti and shell and saber
strokes were thickest, and yet he looked but little like
the spirit of war when not in battle, and was as effemi-
nate and tender in his sympathies and as quietly sensi-
tive to misery and distress as a woman.

Brave, generous, high-spirited Tom Moore. I would
the poet's pen were mine, that I might bathe its diamond
point in fire and emblazon this hero's name high up
among those of the imperishable few who were not
born to die. Gentle as a woman and brave as a lion.
When in repose his voice was as soft and tender as a
mother's lullaby; yet in action, it rang out above the
din of battle like the piercing note of a bu^le blast. Of
humble and unpretentious origin, yet the atmosphere
around him was impregnated with his splendid man-
hood. Born and reared among the rough hills and rocks
of Pendleton, yet no child nurtured in the lap of luxury
and magnificent repose ever had a softer, gentler, more
refined bearing toward all than he. Kind hearted and
sympathetic, almost to effeminacy, yet the very genius
of war when in battle and at all times and under all
circumstances, a quiet, self-possessed, splendidi gentle-
man. Indeed, in him did the elements so mix that all
the world might rise up and say : "This is a man."
Married to a daughter of Major John Shawhan, he
now lives in prosperous old age near the station of that
name in Harrison county, the same quiet, dignified,
courteous gentleman as in his early manhood.

In those older — and I must believe — happier days,
hospitality and good fellowship reigned universally.
What ''dinings" we had, when whole families went from
house to house and ate their bread with gladness and
singleness of heart. ''Let's go a-visitin' " meant more

i6

than to watch an opportunity when }'onr neighhor was
out, to rush over and stick a ''caUing- card" under the
front door and then at evening recount the great suc-
cess or hick you had had in finding so many of your
friends "not in."

True, Christmas stih comes once a year, and the
children and young people still enjoy it, but who lies
awake half the night to be first to get everybody's
''Christmas Gift?" Indeed, Christmas in the country,
even now, is a very different thing from the Christmas
in town, hut at the time I speak of, the difference was
still more pronounced. The most distinctive feature I
recall, was the size of the wood pile. For weeks before
Christmas all hands were employed in increasing its
proportions, for it was well understood that Christmas
would last three weeks and there must be no' interrup-
tion to the frolic and fun. So there may be more Christ-
mas trees now than then, but they had bigger wood
piles than now, and the enjoyment was just as hearty
and more genuine.

Of my immediate family, I do not speak here, ex-
cept of brother John Watson. He was but two years my
senior and I was always with him. In 1862, when
but 18 years of age, he went, at what he construed to be
his country's call, to the Confederate army. He fell,
mortally wounded, at Chickamauga on the 20th of Sep-
tember, 1863, but lixed long enough to know of the vic-
tory for which he had given his life. A braver, truer,
nobler life never went out. He was incapable of a mean
act. He was the soul of integrity and candor; and so
he fell, battling for the right, as God gave him light
to see the right. No matter now whO' was right or who
was wrong in that terrible conflict; braver men never
met in the shock of battle. Truer patriotism does not
exist than in the ranks of the veterans of the South.
Though many homes and firesides were made desolate,
like our own, both North and South, yet the bond of

17

union, cemented by this unnatural war, is all the stronger
and firmer. Men on the theater of life, both in war and
in peace, have ''Cut such capers before high Heaven as
to make the angels weep," and vainly imagined that they
were shaping and molding a nation's destiny, forgetting
that there is a sovereign God of the universe, "who holds
the destinies of nations in the hollow of His hand" and
"who orders all things after the counsels of his own will,"
and so this "irrepressible conflict" was irrepressible in-
deed, and could have had no other beginning or ending
than it did; and this, not because fate had anything to
do with it, but as a demonstration that God rules and_
fate, chance or accident has no place in His councils.
A thorough belief in the absolute sovereignty of God, not
only does not lead to fatalism, but is the one absolute
and conclusive argaiment against fate. Conceded that
there is a God, the conception irresistibly followed Is
that He is a God of purpose, and must of necessity be
absolutely sovereign in the execution of such purpose.
Hence, no act or decree of any creature can aUer or
change the act or decree of an infinite God. If it can,
God ceases to be God and man becomes something- more
than man. It must be that a God of infinite wisdom had
an infinite purpose in creation. Can it be that there has
at any time since the morning stars sang- together at
creation's birth l^een danger that such purpose would be
thwarted, changed or affected by man? Is the finite
greater than the infinite? Was there a possibility that
Adam might prevent the necessity of a Christ? If so,
then the plan of human redemption agreed upon from
"Before the world was" had in it the possibility of fail-
ure ! But it may be said : "Suppose that the sovereign
God, in His infinite w^isdom, chose to make man sovereign
of his own will," then what? Why, this, as it seems to
me: God would have abdicated, or at least endowed
man with some of his own essential attributes, and in
exercise of such sovereign power, man might have per-

i8

verted and destroyed the whole plan and purpose of God!
No law, no transgression. This, it would seem, is a
reasonable excuse for Adam's transgression. No sin,
no salvation. This may lead to the conclusion that God
is the author of sin. What of it? But whether this be
true or not. His "foreknowledge" stands confessed by all
disputants. Then, if He foreknew that man would fall
and provided a means of escape in advance, how^ w^as it —
how is it possible — for man to change or divert the sure
result of such knowledge? God either knew or he didn't
know "The End from the Beginning." If He knew it,
then it was fixed and certain. If he did not know it,
then his judgment is no longer one of law and order, but
is one of chance, liable to all the vicissitudes and uncer-
tainties of accident. In other w^ords, this leads inevitably
to the conclusion that there is no God, for it is inconceiv-
able that if there is a God, he does not know and do all
things. The God of the Bible notes the sparrow^'s fall —
the number of hairs on the human head. He
knoweth all things ; he doeth all things. Ab-
solutely nothing is left to chance — nothing to
accident — nothing to whim or caprice. Would you have
ordered it differently? Would you abolish what you do
not understand? Who sits in judgment upon the decrees
of the Almio-htv? Then "all have sinned" — all died in
Adam, who was a type of Christ, that in him all might
be made alive. Who are the "AH" referred to here?
WHio are the "saved?" Those for wdiom Christ made
atonement. For whom did Christ make .atonement?
For all those whom the Father gave him. Did the
Father jjive him all? Then it is certain that all shall
be saved. But it is certain that some are lost. Then
the atonement was not for all, for if all were included,
none could be lost. If it w^ere so, God would be mocked
— Christ would have suffered and died in vain. Calvary
would lose its meaning, or stand out in the history of
God's dealings as the most stupendous and cruel blunders.

19

for if Christ died for all and yet some are lost, then Christ
died in vain for all that are lost, and God knew before
the sacrifice was made that his purpose would be de-
feated. If Adam could not thwart or change the plans
of creation, can his descendants thwart or change His
plan of redemption? It seems to me clear that they can,
if by their voluntary acts they can accept or reject the
provisions made in the atonement. i'Vgain, if man can,
by this voluntary exercise of his own w^ill, accept or reject
the salvation offered, then to me, Calvary largely loses its
significance — for why so great a sacrifice for so uncertain
a purpose? Why the atonement at all, if man could save
himself? If man holds his destiny in his own keeping,
then the atonement did not atone. The redemption
wrought by Christ did not redeem. Calvary loses its
deep and awful meaning, and man should be crowned
and enthroned by the side of Deity himself. If this be
true, thei it was possible that Christ, the son of God —
Christ, one of the trinity — ^Christ, the ''Equal with God"
— Christ, the father of the eternities, he who agreed
with the Father in the plan of human redemption, should,
in the execution of his purpose, die for a world which
might reject the terms thus offered! For if it was pos-
sible for even one to be lost for whom he died, then all
mjght have been lost and Calvary remain only as a monu-
ment of weakness and cruelty ! What then ? Why this,
as it seems to me : God alone is free, and He is His own
interpreter. He giveth life to such as shall be saved.
He knoweth His own. Salvation is alone in Christ. He
will save all for whose sins He has atoned. He saw the
end from the beginning. He knew who were His fol-
lowers, his children, from before ihe creation. He is
not a God of chance. All who were included in the
atonement are saved. They cannot by any possibility
be lost. They are not to be saved by and by, but are
saved now. Aye, however difficult to grasp the idea, they

20

are not only saved now, but were saved before the crea-
tion, because with God there is no such thing as time,
but His people were present in His heart and constituted
His purpose from all eternity.

Mc J J " illia iJis- CI eve I a ; / (/.

John AlcWilliams married Elizabeth Cleveland in
Virginia, December lo, 1778, and moved to Madison
county, Kentucky, and settled on Silver Creek in 1798.
John Mc\\'illiams was one of three brothers who came
to this country some time prior to 1776. Alexander Cleve-
land was born in England in 1659. He married Milly
Pressly and emigrated to Virginia and settled on Bull
Run about 1740. Prior to this, Alexander Cleveland
was born. He married Margaret Dolittle, and furnished
the Colonial army six revolutionary heroes, to-wit : John,
W'ho was killed in the battle of Stony Point; James, Eli,
Alexander, Oliver and William. They were present at
Cornwallis' surrender at Yorktowm. He had. seven daugh-
ters, to-wit: Elizabeth, Anna, Milly, Ankie, Martha,
Patsy, and one name unknown.

John McWilHams and Elizabeth Cleveland reared
three sons and seven daughters. His sons were : Capt.
John Cleveland McWilliams, Alexander Cleveland Mc-
Williams and Eli Cleveland McWilliams. Pie Q-ave his
home farm to his son Eli on condition that he take care
of his mother, Elizabeth, during her life, which he did,
and the farm at this writing, is in possession of EH's son,
Oliver Cleveland McWilliams, wdio lives on it. She died
in 1846.

Alexander Cleveland McWilliams married Jane
Breedlove. They left a number of daughters, who are
now lix'ing, and arc in Kansas City, Mo., and two sons,
Oliver Cleveland ^McWilliams, who died in 1894, in
Kansas City, leaving his widow and two children, a son
and daughter, surviving him; and S)(lney McWilliams,
now living in Kansas City, Mo. He has one son. To

21

trace the Cleveland family, which claims descent from
Oliver Cromwell, would, of itself, fill a volume and I
therefore start with their arrival in this country and con-
fine this to a single branch.

Captain John C. McWilliams was a captain in the
army of 1812, and about 18 13 he married Nancy Hock-
aday, and reared a large family, to-wit : James, Schuyler
N., Richard Cleveland, Capt. Samuel Hockaday, Dudley,
Dr. John O. A., Sydney, Elizabeth and Nancy. About
1856 he moved to Clinton county, Mo., where he died.
His widow survived him until November 27th, 1893.
She was 99 years of age at the time of her death. They
were both members of the Baptist church and were bap-
tized by Thomas Dudley, after whom they named one
of their sons — one of the great preachers of Kentucky
in her early history. Their son. Dr. John Quincy Adams
McWilliams married Emma E. McCord, daughter of
William Dbwny McCord and Theodosia (Elder) Mc-
Cord m Madison county, Kentucky. They immigratea
to Missouri and had two children — one a boy who died
in infancy. The daughter, Mary Elizabeth, was born
in Jackson county, Missouri, January 23, 1856. Her
mother died in Fayette county, Missouri, where the fam-
ily had settled while she was yet an infant. And her
father. Dr. John, died in Plattsburg, Mo., shortly there-
after. She was reared by her grandmother, Nancy Mc-
Williams, one of the noblest and best women God ever
gave to an orphan child. Of the sterling qualities of
both head and heart of this old "Mother in Israel," it
would take a far abler pen than mine to do justice. A\'ere
I asked to mention her most prominent traits, I should
answer promptly, her convictions of duty and her great
unselfishness. Born in the seventeenth century, she lived
through the eighteenth, and therefore saw its mighty
progress. Yet, through it all, she had been a pioneer, liv-
ing on the very outskirts of civilization.

22

By "Outskirts of Civilization/" I mean that they gave
up many of the luxuries and even comforts of an older,
better developed environment and endured many of the
necessary discomforts of a new country. A grave mis-
take as it seems to me, but one of very frequent occur-
rence. After a life-time spent in building and adorning
a home — surrounding it with all the comforts and lux-
uries of home— surrounding it with the many attrac-
tions which enshrine it in the affections of the family,
then to sell it, abandon it to strangers and go to a new
one, always seemed wrong to me. Granuma McWilliams
was a woman of strong local attachments and enduring
love. She loved everything beautiful, everything true and
worthy. In the old home in Madison county, Ky., she
had l)een born and spent a happy, useful life, full of
sunshine and achievement before she left it. There were
her schoolmates, her early friends. There she met, was
wooed and won by her warrior lover, Capt. John Cleve-
land McWilliams. There were all her "household gods,*'
the idols of her heart. These must all be abandoned now.
True, she took with her the family and the faithful
negro servants, but the halo which rests upon the old
family homestead can not be transferred, save in mem-
ory. She rests now in the family cemetery, in Clinton
county. Brave, sweet soul, sleep on, sleep sweetly. If
ever woman won the right to rest, surely this one did.
If ever woman deserved a place in the memory of her
friends and family, this one did. What a debt of ever-
lasting love do I not owe her for imbuing with such high
princi])les of character, truth and devotion the girl she
gave me so trustingly. If I have attained tO' any degree
of success in life, to any development of character, of
purpose in right thinking and right doing, I owe it all
to my wife. For she is thoroughly imbued with the same
high resolves, the same love of truth, the same self-sacri-
ficing unselfishness, the same stern devotion to duty as
was this grand and noble woman.

23

I sometimes wonder if I had never seen a Bible or
heard a sermon I could doubt the existence of a Heaven
just from knowing such women. There may be "sermons
in rocks and brooks," but if so, what a grand demon-
stration of God's love is there in the good women with'
which He has so abundantly enriched human life.

Married in her early girlhood to a young Captain,
then fresh from the War of 1812, she lived to send stal-
wart sons to the war between the states.

Brought down to April ist, 1906.

24

Lecture on Thomas Jefferson.

Delivered before The Jefferson Club of St. Louis, Mo., April 13, 1900.

The profonndest, most far-seeing", pf!"ophetic and
least understood, the worst abused and the 1)est loved
statesman in American history, is Thomas Jefferson. His
very name is an inspiration to every thoug-htful and pa-
triotic American citizen. To study his life is to learn
alone the political history of the United States, but is to
imljil:)e and become saturated with the ideas and prin-
ciples of free government every w^ here.

The life of Thomas Jefferson should be ado])ted
as the text l:)Ook of political economy l>y every (jualified
voter in the United States, for, if J cffcrson was wron<^
America is wrong. If the principles he estal^lished were
wrong-, then the government of the United States has no
rightful place among the nations of the earth. If men
are not capable of governing themselves, as he l^elieved
they were, then it is clear that they are not capa1>le of
governing others. Jefferson was invited Ijy Napoleon to
suggest laws for a French Colony. He declined it, on
the ground that no alien is (|ualilic(l to make laws for
another people. And jlcnry Cla\-, his great follower, in
his speech in fcixor of tlie independence of the South
American Repul)]ics, declared that "God never made a
people incapable of self-government." He said that it
was "the doctrine of tlirones and a reflection u])on Je-
ho\-ah to say that he had created a ])co])]e an\\\here who

25

were incapable of governing themselves." And after all
this is the commonest kind of common sense. No' people
ever became self-governing by being governed by others.
To claim this right is to assume the prerogative of Deity
— is to assume that God has specially qualified and set
apart one individual or set of individuals, and divinely
entrusted them with the welfare and government of
others. It is the old claim, in a new guise, of "The Di-
vine right of Kings." Neither can the science of gov-
ernment, if it be a science, be taught. It is inherent in
the people. All the just powers of government reside in
and come from the people governed. It can reside
nowhere else. Jehovah has neither abdicated nor dele-
gated His authority to others. Men are created different
only in degree or by comparison. What constitutes good
government for one people may be bad government for
another, and of this the people themselves are not only
the best judges, but they, of right, are the sole judges,
from whose decision there is no appeal. A majority of
any people have the inherent right to alter, change or
abolish their own form of government and set up a new
one which suits them better, regardless of what others
may think or say or do.

The great philosopher-historian. Dr. Fiske, said :
''We do not imagine that a community of Hottentots
would be particularly benefited by our federal consti-
tution any more than they would feel comfortal>le in our
clothes." Constitutional government is a growth — the
result of ages of evolution. Victor Hugo in Notre Dame
savs : ''All civilization beo;ins with Theocracv and ends
with Democracy." These principles of Jefferson should
be closely studied. The opponents of our form of gov-
ernment have always claimed that the government as or-
ganized and administered by the Fathers was unsafe.
They clamored then, as some of them do now% for a
stronger government. Indeed, there was a strong senti-

26

nient at the close of tlie Revolution to select one of the
younger sons of George III. as king*.

William 11. Seward said, in a speech in the Senate :
"The United States stands now confessed by the world
the form (^f government not only most adapted to em-
pire, hut also most congenial with tlie constitution of
human nature." And this was said fiftv years before
the sound of our guns rolled around the wrtrld from San-
tiago and ^Manila and awoke the slumbers of the sleep-
ing nations of the earth. It has been said that in the
late war the Philippine Islands were a "discovery" to our
people. The United States was an even greater dis-
covery to Europe.

History has proven that the government, as organ-
ized by Jefferson and his compeers, is the strongest as
well as the freest on the face of the earth. Its weak-
nesses have been developed just in proportion as we have
departed from his teachings. Rulers have been slow to
learn that the strength of government lies, not in its
standing armies and great navies, but in the freedom and
education of its people. The man who does not believe
in the ])rinciples advocated by Jefferson is not a good
American, for the Jeffersonian idea is the American idea
of government. When these principles shall have passed
int(j desuettide as a vitalizing, living force, the govern-
ment as originally founded, will have ceased to exist.
The Jeffersonian idea came into active life with the birth
of the Republic, and has dominated our political fortunes
for (jiie hundred years, more or less, and when it dies,
popular g^overnment will have passed away from the
earth. As it won its first triumi)hs over the Etiropean
idea in Colonial times, so it has had to battle with the
same reactionary force at every step in .Vmerican his-
tory.

The Tory, or European idea, as opposed to the
American, is no whit different from, or more danger-
ous, because it masquerades under a new uniform, under

27

new conditions and under new leadership. The great
distinguishing- feature is this : The American idea stands
for law while the European idea stands for force.

Although at times the American principle has been
almost lost sight of in the mad struggle for wealth, in
the delirium of Empire building, or in order to win tem-
porary political advantage or triumph, yet it is destined
to permeate all lands, tO' strike the fetters from all peo-
ple, to dominate all governments. Permanent defeat can
never come to the great principles enunciated by Jeffer-
son. They are woven into the warp and woof of the
gOA'ernment formed by him. They are l^uilt upon the
eternal foundations of truth, and are, therefore, inde-
structible.

The fundamental American idea of government is
the Heaven inspired one that "All men'' (not some men,
but all men ) , are created equal before the law. That is
the very basic principle of government by the people, of
the people and for the people. Government in which
every citizen is on an al^solute ecjuality with every other
citizen. In such a government each individual has the
"inalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happi-
ness ;'' and it is to secure flicsc rights that "governments
are instituted among" men, deriving their just powers
from the consent of the governed." The only reason
given in this immortal Magna Charta for the formation
of government at all among men is, that these rights may
be secured. Government, whose powers are derived
wholly, not partly, from the consent of the governed, and
securing the right to life, liberty and nroperty. In this
conception there is no place for force nor for establishing
governments over an alien and an unwilling" people.
While this principle may seem to have gone down in the
mad scramble in the Philippines, yet it is destined sooner
or later, to work its way to the top again.

Equality of rights secured l^y a government formed
by the consent of the governed. This is the character

28

of government outlined in the great declaration : This
does not mean tliat e(|nality whicli resnlts from a dead
level of mediocrity; nor that men are ecjnal in, mental
endowments, or e(|nal]y fortnnate in material circnm-
stances. It means that all men are eqnal before the
law ; that all men shall share the burdens and enjoy the
benefits of government ef|nally. It means equality of o[>
portunity — that equality, in the language of Jefferson,
which resnlts from "PnHccfiiii^ rii^hfs and not interests."
"E(|na] rights to rdl — special prix'ileges to none." Wdien-
e\-er wc ha\e dcj^arted from this ])rinciple, to that extent
ha\c we departed from the basic i)rinciples of the gov-
ernment as founded by the fathers. wSo long as there is
an individual an interest, an industry, a trust, or a cor-
poration, enjoying special privileges, receiving special
protection, whether this protection shall be given by
bounties, subsidies or tariff taxes, and escaping the just
responsibilities of government, to that extent has this
ceased to be a Democratic government. Whole volumes
of ])olitical discussion, and works on political economy,
are here concentrated into seven English w^ords. They
comprehend and include all the wisdom of the ages on
the duties and powers of government. Let the artificial
creature of law. called a corporation, be shorn of its
special prixilegcs, and i)laced upon an exact ecpiality with
the indi\i(hial citizen, and we will have gone far toward
solving the d^rust jjrohlem.

But his enemies ha\'e said, and continue to say, that
he was "inconsistent;" that the Declaration of Indei^iend-
ence ])re])ared by Jefferson declared that all men are "born
ecpial," and made no mention of the ine(|ualities of negro
slax'cry; and this onn'ssion has been strangclv laid to the
charge of its great author for niore than an hundred
years. This charge nn'ght still go unnoticed, as this
question has now passed into history, Ijut for the fact
that William Cullen Bryant, and a host of lesser lights

29

who have followed him, continue to falsify history in this
particular down to the present day.

The original draft of the Declaration when presented
to the convention by Mr. Jefferson, contained the follow-
ing paragraph : "He has waged cruel war against human
nature itself; violating its most sacred rights of life and
liberty, in the persons of a distant people who never of-
fended him, captivating and carrying- them into slavery
in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in
their transportation thither. This piratical warfare, the
opprobrium of infidel power, is the warfare of the Chris-
tian King of England. Determined to keep open a mar-
ket where men should be bought and sold, he has prosti-
tuted his negative by suppressing every legislative at-
tempt to prohibit or restrain this execrable commerce;
and that this assemblage of horrors might want no fact
of distinguished aid, he is now exciting these very peo-
ple to rise in arms among us, and to purchase that liberty
of which he has deprived them, by murdering the people
on whom he also obtruded them; thus paying off former
crimes committed ag"ainst the liberties of one people, with
crimes he urged them to commit against the lives of an-
other.''

Suppose these flaming words of fiery indignation
had been adopted by the convention? The Declaration
would not then have been the subject of this criticism;
slavery, under the educational influence of the great
charter, would have soon ceased to exist, and the war
between the States would have been averted. But like
most great papers, the Declaration was the result of
compromise. Too many people in the New England
States were engaged in the slave trade, and they still
found a market for this ''execrable commerce" in two
of the Southern states.

Therefore, this paragraph was stricken out by the
Convention, against the protest of Jefferson, Franklin,
Adams and Livingston. At that time so great a thinker

30

as lulward Burke, who had gi\-cn much time to the
study of the subject, held that shivery was a necessary
evil, and Bossuet had declared that, "To condemn slav-
ery was to condemn the Holy Ghost !" .Vlthough slavery
existed in all the original thirteen states yet public opin-
ion here on this (juestion was far in advance of what
it was in England. Lord ddiurlow, the Chancellor in
George III Cabinet, characterized the effort to abolish
the slave trade as "miseralile and abomina1>le,'' and
George III vetoed the Act of the Virginia House of
Burgesses prohibiting the importation of slaves. In
1788 there were many free negroes in Virginia, and the
Legislature j^assed a law that any person who should
kidnap and sell into slavery any free person should suf-
fer death on the orallow'S.

Before the Declaration was even dreamed of, to-
wit: in 1874, too ill to attend the Continental Con-
gress, he drafted and sent per express, for its adoption,
a protest on slavery, very similar to this rejected para-
graph. In 1799 he w^as chairman of the committee on
revision of the law^s of Virginia, and prepared an amend-
ment emancipating the slaves of that state, but in his
notes he says : 'Tt was found that the public mind would
not yet bear the proposition, nor will it l)ear it even at
this date. Yet the day is not distant when it must bear
and adopt it, or worse will follow. N'otluiig is more
certainly written in the boolc of fate tJuni that these peo-
ple are to l)e free.''

And then, looking down the corridors of time for
more than an hundred years, he saw the ''irrepressible
conflict," the inevitable Ci\il War, with all its attendant
horrors, and declared "that it was imj)ossible for the
two races to li\e equally free in the same government;
that nature, habit, opinion, liad drawn indelible lines of
distinction l)etween them, that accordingly emancipa-
tion and deportation sliouid go hand in hand," etc.
"These," he said, "and many other circumstances will

31

divide us into parties and produce convulsions which will
probably never end but in the extermination of the one
or the other race." How like the midnight bell do these
words of prophecy come ringing down through the ages.
This clear-sighted prophet sat down at Monticello and
saw the whole mighty panorama of the greatest civil war
in history pass before him. He saw^ the serried col-
umns of Grant and Lee hurled upon each other with
Titanic force. He saw them reel ?nd surge, and heard
the tremendous death grapple which shuok the founda-
tions of the world. He saw the soil of his own beloved
Virginia, loathed and saturated in the blood of the two
grandest and bravest armies that ever met upon thS
embattled field of war.

It came. No pen has described it — no language can
paint it — no imagination can color it. It has gone, and
tliirty-seven years of peace finds us still torn by the con-
vulsions which he foretold. Finds us still groping in
darkness for the solution of cjuestions left in unsettled
chaos at its close.

In 1780 Air. Jefferson, as Governor of Virginia,
made a deed ceding the Northwest Territory, now com-
prising the states of Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan
and Wisconsin, to the government. In this deed was a
clause providing that after the year 1800 neither slav-
ery nor unconditional servitude should exist in said ter-
ritorv.

In 1784 he was chairman of the Committee to pre-
pare a plan for the temporary government of this Ter-
ritory, and reported a similar clause. But the Congress
held that under the Articles of Confederation they could
not accept a deed with such conditions, and this Article
was defeated by a single vote. With Jefferson on this
subject, stood such spirits of the grand old Common-
wealth, as Judge George Wythe, George Mason. James
Madison, Edmond Randolph. Patrick Henry and Rich-
ard Henry Lee, the greatest orator, next to Henry, of

Revolutionary time, and the great Uncle of that incom-
parable gentleman, that matchless soldier, who, accord-
ing to President Roosevelt, was the "Greatest command-
er of the English speaking race." General Robert Ed-
ward Lee. who entertained precisely the same views as
did his celebrated father, Henry Lee, who, as a member
of the Vh-ginia House of Delegates, led in the debate
in favor of ratifying the Constitution, and who said,
''notwithstanding it contains no i)rovision for the eman-
cipation of slavery, it is a long step toward that much
desired consummation." This is the Lee, "Light Horse
Harry," who declared that the great Washington was
"First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of
his Countrymen."

Li speaking of the defeat of this measure, Jefferson
wa'ote: "Thus we see the fate of millions unborn
hano'ine on the tonoue of one man, and heaven was si-
lent in. this awful moment." And yet his enemies charge
hin] with insincerity in bringing forward this measur^
for the government of the Northwest Territory, and Bry-
ant says it was "a scheme to fasten slavery upon said
territory;" and have constantly sought to give the credit
to a citizen of Massachusetts, a Mr. Cutler, who suc-
ceeded in passing a similar measure three years there-
after, and after the adoption of the present constitu-
tion which makes express provision for the government
of territories.

John Fiske, in his great work entitled "1^he Crit-
ical Period in American History," says: "The diffi-
culty with Ah-. JetTerson's plan of dealing with the Xorth-
western Territory was the wholesale manner in which
he tried to deal with the slavery question." Listead of
trying to "fasten slavery upon that territory," he says,
"He wished to hem in the probal)le extension of slavery
by an impassible barrier, and accordingly he not only
provided that it should be extinguished in the Northwest-
ern Territory after the year 1800, but at the same time

33

his anti-slavery ardour led him to try to extend the na-
tional domain Southward. He did his best to persuade
the Legislature of Virginia to crown its work by giving
up Kentucky to the United States, and he urged that
North Carolina and Georgia should also cede their West-
ern Territories. As for South Carolina, she was shut
in between the two neighboring states in such wise that
her \\'estern claims were vague and barren. Jefferson
would thus have drawn a North and South line from
Lake Erie down to the Spanish border of the Floridas,
and west of this line he w^ould have had all negro slavery
end with the eighteenth century. The policy of restrict-
ing slavery, so as to let it die a natural death W'ithin a
narrowly confined area — the policy to sustain which Mr.
Lincoln was elected in i860 — was thus definitely outlined
by Jefferson in 1784. It was the policy of forbidding
slavery in the National Territory. Had this policy suc-
ceeded then, it would have been an "ounce of prevention
worth many a pound of cure." "^ * '^ "But Jeffer-
son's scheme had not only to deal with the National do-
main as it was, but also to extend that domain South-
ward tO' Florida, and in this it failed," by a single vote.

In speaking of Mr. Cutler's action Mr. Fiske says :
"Congress in 1787 proceeded to carry out the work which
Jefferson had outlined three years before."

Among all the great constructive works of Mr.
Jefferson's life it is doubtful if any of them should out-
rank the cession of the Northwest Territory. Here was
empire building beyond the comprehension of most of his
contemporaries. Here was first created a national do-
main over which the general government did exercise
sovereignty; here was laid the foundation for future
States. And here was created a great national fund for
the lack of which the whole country had been on the
verge of universal bankruptcy, chaos and ruin. What
transcendant genius it was to provide for such a condi-
tion as this !

34

In speaking of the Act accepting this grant, Dan-
iel Webster said: "I doubt whether one single law of any
law-giver, ancient or modern, has produced effects of
more distinct, marked and lasting character than the
Ordinance of 1787."

Now, whatever the solution of the race problem may
be, it is clear tliat the Southern people alone can make
it. The restless agitators of the country can, by their
untimely intermeddling, only make its settlement the
more difficult, just as they made more difficult the set-
tlement of the slavery cpiestion. That this is true may
be proven by the fact that Virginia always honored the
men who stood for individual freedom, and who were
opposed to slavery. Kentucky kept the great emanci-
pationist, Henry Clay, in the public councils for more
than fifty years, and Madison, who agreed with Jef-
ferson on this question, twice offered him a place in
his cabinet. Missouri kept her great Benton in the
Senate for more than thirty years, although he never
niissed an opportunity to oj^pose the extension of slav-
ery. And so it was, and so it is to this day, that the real
and the best friends of the negro were the people with
whom they lived, and who knew them best. It may be
of curious interest to some people to know that even the
Confederate Constitution prohibited the slave trade, not-
withstanding Toonil)'s threat to build a o-overnmental
structure whose "chief corner stone should be negro
slavery," and Jefferson Davis manumitted his faithful
slave, Ben Montgomery, two years before the fall of the
Confederacy, and gave him ])roperty worth at his death
in 1884, more than $200,000.00. There are few more pa-
thetic, eloquent and suggestive scenes than Mr. Davis
delivering the funeral oration on the death of faithful
Ben Montgomery.

We have erected monuments to, and written volumes
in eulogiziu"" the \'irtues of an innumerable bodv of lesser

35

men siuldenl}' tlirown to the stirface by the march of suc-
ceeding events, and who happened to be in the glare of
the footHghts when the curtain was rung down on this
most melancholy drama. But, if men are to be enrolled
among the immortals because of what they said and did
in favor of human rights, and human liberty, then Jef-
ferson's name should be written high above that of any
man's in the whole range of this country's political his-
tory.

He secured freedom, as we have shown, in the
Northwest Territory. Suppose he had fastened slavery
upon those states, as he undoubtedly could have done
and as some of them desired ? Subsequent history would
have been written vastly different. At the session of
Congress in 1789. North Carolina ceded Tennessee, with
a perpetual shrt'c clause in the deed, and it was accepted,
adopted, and held to be binding tipon the Government,
tinder the Constitution as it then existed. But what-
ever the legal effect of Air. Jefferson's action might
have lieen. it is still historically true that slavery did ex-
ist in some of those territories notwithstanding the or-
dinance of 1787.

Slavery existed in some of them after the adoption
of the constitution of those states, and in the state of
Illinois, especially, down to as late a date as 1840. The
point is, that he threw the tremendous influence of his
2;reat name always, evervwhere and under all circum-
stances, in favor of universal freedom, whereas he could
have wielded a controlling influence in the opposite di-
rection. I must add that the people of those states, with
splendid American spirit, disregarded deeds, ordinances,
and Acts of Congress, even when they came to adopt
constittitions of their own, and dealt v.'ith their own
domestic concerns in their own way and as they saw fit.
But his critics say that he did not make a good war gov-
ernor. He succeeded Patrick Henry at a time when
Virginia was well nigh depleted of both men and war

36

material : Alost of her 1)rave sons were with their own
loved commander at X^alley Forge, and many were with
Natlianiel Green and iM'ancis Marion, the "Swamp Fox"
of the Sonth, and with "Light Horse Harry Lee," the
great and invincible field marshal of the Revolution.
Just before Governor Henry's term expired, the chival-
rous George Rogers Clarke, that splendid soldier of Ken-
tucky, whom John Randolph called the ''Hannibal of
the \\>st," applied for a commission to take and hold
Kaskaskias, Vincennes and Detroit. Governor Henry
called Thomas Jefferson, George Wythe and George Ma-
son, to his council, although not members of the admin-
istration, and they advised a prompt issuance of the
commission, and the next day these three gave Clarke a
letter pledging the legislature of Virginia to give each
volunteer three hundred acres of land. Clarke raised
less than one hundred and fifty volunteers, but with
these intrepid troops he made that unparalleled march
tiM-()ugh the swamps and swollen rivers of Illinois and
Indiana in the dead of winter, and captured Vincennes,
thus gaining in a single battle all that splendid territory
already referred to as "the Northwestern Territory" —
a territory more than half as large as the original thir-
teen states, to secure the liberty of wdiich it took seven
long years of war. (Marginal note.)

Seeing the approach of peace, and believing that on-
ly territorv in actual possession could be hicld, Governor
Jefferson, who had succeeded Henry, then applied to
Washington for a loan of arms and equipment with
which to re-enforce Colonel Clarke, so that he might
capture and hold Detroit and the whole of Canada.
Washington realized its importance, but 1>efore the plan
could be executed, the traitor, Benedict Arnold, and the
dreaded Tarlton had invaded Virginia, and when they
w^ere driven out, Yorktown fell, and the Fnglish Ije-
came "our guests." Ap])()inte(l one of the Commis-
sioners to treat with England he made rapid preparations

37

to sail, but the terms of peace were agreed upon before
he could leave the country.

It has ahvays been a consensus of well informed
opinion that had he been there to aid Franklin, instead
of Adams and Jay to hinder, the whole of the British
Possessions in North America would have been se-
cured. However this may be, it is what ought to have
been, and it is what will he at some day in the future.
He was chairman of the committee to which the Treaty
of Peace was referred and drew up the report ratify-
ing it, wdiich recognized the independence of the States ;
the declaration of which he had written seven
long years before. So unpopular was this. Treaty
in England because it included the Northwest
Territory, that it led to the dissolution of the
English cabinet, and Canada has never forgiven it.
He was chairman of the Committee and drafted the res-
olutions accepting the resignation of Washington, as
Commander of the Army. Appointed Minister to France
he met Ledyard, the great explorer, and he and Lafay-
ette supplied him with money and sent him on an ex-
ploring tour through Siberia across the Behring Straits,
throug-h Alaska and down through the Northwest to
the Mississippi, the eastern bank of which he had se-
cured through Rogers Clarke in the battle of Vincennes
— the identical route now being surveyed in seeking an
all land route from Paris to New York, But Ledyard
was arrested as a spy in Russia, and thrown into pris-
on. Jefferson, however, never lost sight of the great
Northwest, as will be shown further on, and sent his
private secretary, Merriwether Lewds and AA'illiam
Clarke, brother to Col. George Rogers Clarke, to ex-
plore it after he became President. He was the author
of the statute securing religious freedom, thus securing
to Virginia the lead of all the States on this subject, and
this Act was translated into French and Italian and
much commented on throughout Europe. He was the

38

author of the Act alx^Hshing primoo-entnre and of en-
tail, and it was this, added to the principles enunciated
in the Declaration, which drew unon him the venomous
opposition of the "Aristocrac}" of the wliole country.

They said he was an anarchist, beg-ged that he
might compromise h}' allowing the eldest son to have at
least a double portion. His reply was, 'T Vvill. if you can
show that he can eat twice as much, or wear
twice as much clothing." This was a "leveling" pro-
cess for which those who believed in placing the dollar
above the man have never forgiven him.

He was the author of our unit of value, and he fixed
the ration between gold and silver. He believed in coined
money, and opposed the United States Bank with its
paper issues and its attendant evils.

He came to the Presidency at the most critical per-
iod in our national history. It was an open question
v/hether this should be a limited monarchy, fashioned
after that of England, as advocated bv Hamilton, or
whether it should venture into the new and untried ex-
perimental field of self-government. The weight of
argument and public opinion seemed about equally bal-
anced. The two previous administrations had left the
wdiole cfuestion in the gravest doubt and uncertainty.
Wm. H. Seward, the great Secretary in Mr. Lincoln's
cabinet, in one of his splendid speeches in the Senate
in discussing this period, said: "The continuous ad-
mimsl rations of Washington and John Adams had
closed under a cloud which had thrown a JM'oad, dark
shadow over the future; the nation was deeply indebted
at liume and abroad, and its credit icas prostrate/'

Daniel Webster had said in his matchless rhetoric
that 'Td^amilton touched the corpse of the Public Credit
and it sprar,g into life." Splendid rhetoric but barren
of fact, for it was President Jefferson wdio touched
this corpse, and he touched it with Coined money, W'hich
the government took for the land of the Northw^est Ter-

39

itory; and it did, indeed, "spring into life." In trnth it
was the darkest and most dangerous period in our nation-
al history. Mr. Seward said further "This transition stage
is always more perilous than any other in the career
of nations, and especially in the career of Republics. It
proved fatal to the Commonwealth of England. Scarce-
ly any of the Spanish-American states have yei emerged
from it; and it has more than once been sadly signalized
by the ruin of the Republican cause in France." That
we survived this period we stand indebted to-day to the
wisdom and statesmanship of Thomas Jefferson, who
steered the old Ship of State through all the storm and
stress of adverse weather, and at last cast anchor be-
neath the protecting sails of the Declaration of Independ-
ence, and moored her firmly to a strict construction of
the Constitution of the United States.

In this age of iconoclasm, a host of small writers
have been turned loose upon the public, to tear down and
destroy, if possible, the reputation of the men who fash-
ioned and framed the great republic. Just now the virus
of this class of penny-a-liners is directed toward Jef-
ferson. To discredit the American idea of Government,
its author must first be eliminated. Alleged fiction, poet-
ry and biographies innumerable are written to show that^
after all, the traitors and tories of the Revolution were
the heroes and patriots. As a majority in some of the
states believed in the English limited monarchy then, so
some of them are still opposed to the form of government
established by Jefferson and his compeers. The venom
of this class may be understood when I quote from a
defense of one of these inconsequential books, whose au-
thoress, in speaking of Jefferson, says : "He has ple-
bianized this country with such thoroughness that it
is more uncomfortable to live in than anv kino;dom oi!
Europe."

" 'The people,' growled Napoleon to Duroc, when he
had all Europe at his feet, 'The people.' There are no

40

people. There are only subjects." ''The people be
damned," said one of tlic "400."

Over against such critics as these may be placed
the great name of Henry Clay who introduced into Ken-
tucky lee'islature a resolution declaring- that "Thomas
Jefferson is entitled to the thanks of his country for the
ability, uprightness and intelligence which he has dis-
played in the management both of our foreign relations
and our domestic concerns/' which resolution received
the unamimous vote of that body, with a single excep-
tion, and Clay fought a duel with that member with-
in two weeks. (Note.)

And so it was plebianized, until men have a right
to sit down under their own 'Sdne and fig tree" and
"worship God according to the dictates of their own
consciences." Children have a right to inherit equalTy
their father's fortune, and the people select their own
rulers and frame their own laws. But this authoress
has unwittingly given expression to the inmost thought
of every Federalist from the organization of that party
to the present day. In their blind, unreasoning oppo-
sition they even seek to throw discredit upon the Louis-
iana purchase. All honor to the city of St. Louis for
proposing to celebrate this great Act, and for erecting
a monument to its great author.

St. Louis honors herself most by honoring the name
of Jefferson. Situated as she is, midway between the
lakes of the North and the Gulf on the South, and on the
banks of that river so cele1>rated in poetry and song, and
the navigation of which Jefferson determined to have
at "all hazards," it is most fitting that this celebration
should be held there, in the very heart of that territory, —
there on the sun-set side of that river whose eastern
bank had been secured by that intrepid Ken-
tucky soldier, George Rogers Clarke, and whose brother
afterwards became Governor of Missouri. I'here, where
the indomitable spirit transmitted by such men as these

41

has made possible the accomphshment of so vast and
splendid a celebration. Ahd there, in the city of St.
Louis, on Missouri soil, already the first state not only
of this splendid Purchase but the first of all the states
in agriculture and in educational facilities, should be
erected a monument of everlasting granite, commemorat-
ing the exalted character, the illumined statesmanship,
the transcendant genius and the inspirational achieve-
ments of Thomas Jefferson.

By the concjuest of the "Northwest Territory" our
frontier was pushed westward to the Alississippi, and se-
cured to us the navigation of 2,000 miles of the upper
portion of that stream. But Spain held Louisiana and
Florida. This was a scource of constant irritation un-
til the "hunters of Kentucky" threatened to secede, "not
only from Virginia but from the Confederacy." This
v.^as as early as 1782. Li writing of this Jefferson
said : "I own I should think this a most calamitous
event, and such a one as every good citizen should set
himself against. Our present federal limits are not too
large for good government, nor wall the increase of votes
in congress be of any ill effect. On the contrary, it will
drowm the little divisions at present existing there. Our
Confederacy must be view^ed as the nest from zvhich all
America, North and South, is to be peopled.. We should
take care, too, not to think it for the interest of that
great continent to press too soon on the Spaniards.
Those countries cannot be in better hands. My fear is
that they are too feeble to hold them until our popu-
lation can be sufiiciently advanced to gain it from them,
piece by piece. The navigation of the Mississippi zije
must have/' This was eleven years prior to the Louis-
iana purchase and Jefferson alone had his eye on it
from the beginning of Colonel Clarke's campaign. It
is thus made apparent too, why he had only talked of the
joint navigation of the Mississippi, and of acquiring only
Florida, so long as they remained in the hands of Spain,

42

a weak and decaying power; l)iit when Louisiana fell
into the liands of France, the greatest world power then
existing', we will find tliat the leonine growl of this wily
old diplomat caused Napoleon to change front very rap-
idly. Before the cession of France, by Spain, Jef-
terson, as Secretary of State, in Washington's cabinet,
wrote to Carmichael, our Charge De Affairs at Madrid,
saying: ''Your discretion will suggest that they (Our
claims) must be pressed more softly, and that patience
and persuasion nuist temper your conferences till eith-
er those may prevail, or some other circumstance turn
u]) which may enalde us to use other means for the at-
tainment of an ()l)jcct which we are determined, in the
end, to attain at any risk." (Jefferson to Carmichael,
August 2, 1790.) It is therefore apparent what Jef-
ferson's purpose was from the beginning.

Chancellor Livingston was slow to realize the full
scope and purpose of his mission to France. This is
evident from his correspondence, as is fully disclosed in
his dispatch of January 13th, 1802, in which he says:
"I have, however, on all occasions declared that as long-
as France conforms to the existing treaty between us
and Spain, the government of the United States does not
consider herself as having any interest in opposing the
exchange. The evil our country has suffered by their
rupture with France is not to be calculated. \A^e have
become an object of jealousy, both to the government
and tlic ])eople."

Whereas, the moment Jefferson knew of the deal
between Spain and France, he decided to form an alli-
ance with England, if necessary, and fight France; and
when this decision and determination reached Napoleon
he took tlie negotiations out of Taileyrand's hands and
promptly decided to sell, practically for any price the
United States would give. But compare the al)ove dis-
patch with Jefferson's letter to Livingston, dated April
18, 1802. It is too long to quote, but the following

43

extract will convey some idea of its tenor and meaning :
After speaking of our gratitude and friendship for
France, he goes on to say : "There is on the globe one
single spot, the possessor of which is our natural and
habitual enemy. It is New Orleans, through which the
produce of three-eighths of our territory must pass to
the market, and from its fertility it will, ere long, yield
more than half of the whole produce and contain more
than half of our inhabitants. France, placing herself in
that door, assumes the attitude of defiance. Spain might
have retained it quietly for years. She is a weak, inert,
feeble power," etc.

"The day that France takes possession of New Or-
leans fixes the sentence which is to restrain her forever
within the low water mark. It seals the union of two
nations (England and the United States) who, in con-
junction, can maintain exclusive possession of the ocean.
From that moment we must marry ourselves to the
British fleet and nation." His critics say that herein he
w^as again inconsistent in expressing friendship for Eng-
land. He did not express friendship, but did propose
to join her in humbling Napoleon, simply for the pur-
pose of making this Louisiana purchase.

On the very day Livingston sent this disheartening
dispatch, to-wit, January 13th, 1802, Jefferson, who
had appointed Mr. Monroe to go to Paris to aid Living-
ston, wrote him (Monroe) as follows: 'Tf we cannot
by a purchase of the country insure to ourselves a course
of perpetual peace and friendship with all nations, then
as war cannot be distant, it behooves us immediately to
be preparing for that course, without, however, hasten-
ing it; and it may be necessary (on your failure on the
continent) to cross the channel:' And yet so unfair are
his critics that they even seek to give the credit to Napo-
leon, in the effort to belittle Jefferson. This is the very
acme of un-American foolishness. Napoleon was forced
to sell in order to avoid a greater evil. The moment an

44

alliance between the United States and Eng-land should
ha\-e Ijeen formed, Louisiana would have been lost to
I'rancc.

Li\'ino-ston was ^•i!2■orouslv and earnestly, thou9'h
slowlw contesting- every foot of ground, and it was not
intended to supersede or e\'en criticise his efforts, but
onlv to aid him l)v sendino- Alonroe to his assistance.
That he and his friends so interpreted it, was proved in
the next election, when New ^^)rk voted by an increased
majority for Mr. Aladison, who was Secretary of State,
under Mr. Jefferson.

On the iilh of April (Monroe did not arrive in
Paris until the I2th) Livinq-ston wrote to his o-overn-
ment that Talleyrand had that day asked him whether
the United States "wished to have the whole of Louis-
iana." That he told him "No, that our wishes only
extended to New Orleans and the Floridas." Talleyrand
refused to sell (and wisely) unless we would buy all,
and Livingston refused to consider this proposition until
Monroe should arrive. And on the 30th — -war with
England being" then impending — Bonaparte, although
bitterly opposed by Joseph, Lucien and others of his
fantily, wisely fdeterminecl^ to sell, and the purchase
was made.

The commissioners reported tlie purchase May 13th,
1803. which was written l)y Livingston, but was signed
by botli, stating that they feared that they had exceeded
their authority in ])urchasing all the territory. Mr. Mad-
ison, Air. Jeffersou's Secretary of State, replied that they
had not exceeded their authority, and added that the
private instructions carried by Moiu'oe fully covered
everything the commissioners had done. The Congress,
urged on l)y Mr. Jefferson, ratified the treaty November
30th, 1803.

On July 13th, 1803, while the treaty was still pend-
ing in Congress, ratifying this purchase, Jefferson wrote
to General Gates as follows : 'T find our opposition is

45

very willing to pluck feathers from Monroe, although
not fond of sticking them into Livingston's' coat. The
truth is, both have a just portion of merit, and were it
necessar}' or proper, it would be shown that each has
rendered peculiar services and of important value. These
grumblers, too, are very uneasy lest the administration
should have some little credit for the ficquisition, the
whole of which they ascribe to the accident of war. They
would be cruelly mortified could they see our files from
May, 1 80 1, the first organization of the administration,
but more especially from April, 1802. They would see
that though we could not say when war would arise,
yet we said with energy what would take place when it
should arise. We did not, by our intrigues, produce the
war, but we availed ourselves of it when it happened."
There is the whole story in a few sentences.

And what an achievement this was ! A distin-
guished writer has truthfully said : "No conqueror who
has trod the earth to fill it with desolation and mourning,
ever conquered and permanently amalgamated with his
native kingdom a remote approach to the same extent of
territory." A territory capable of supporting a popu-
lation as dense as that of all Europe. But one kingdom
in Europe is equal in area to the State of Nebraska alone.
Napoleon, from whom this great purchase was made,
continued to decimate Europe until the whole country
from the Polar seas to the Mediterranean was like one
vast slaughter house. There was scarcely a home left
in all Europe where the voice of lamentation and woe
was not heard. But not one foot of ground was per-
manently added to his country's limits, nor one soul
made happier, freer and better. He played out his tre-
mendous tragedy, and died an exile and a captive on a
desolate rock.

Jefferson shed not one drop of human blood. "He
caused out his single tear of human woe." He added
not one dollar to the burdens of government; and yet,

46

he acquired a country vaster and richer than any over
wliich Xapoleon's gory ])hime ever waved. And yet,
strangest and most incomprehensi1)le of all ; this is all,
absolutely all, in his letter to General Gates, that he ever
said in ])raise of his own connection with this mighty
work! He wrote no laurelled letter, he asked no tri-
umph. So grent was the soul of this man that when he
came to die, he wrote his own epitaph, but made no men-
tion of this great achievement. In his death, as in his
life, his great intellect dwelt only upon great ideas. He
asked that his monument should indicate only that he
had stood for indixidual freedom, for religious freedom,
for educational freedom.

On, his death bed he said, ''the world has at last
learned that some men are not born with saddles on
their backs, wdiilst others are born booted and spurred
and divinely appointed to ride."

His great mind and heart were still wrestling with
the rights of Man. Plebian ideas, 'tis true, but how God-
like is their conception!

Afterwards a serious cjuestion arose between Eng-
land and the United States as to which had the better
title to that vast territory known as the Oregon Ter-
ritorv. This remained a diplomatic ''bone of conten-
ti()n" down to T844. wlien Polk was nominated and elect-
ed over Clay on a platform declaring in fax'or of "54-40
or fight." After the election Calhoun, the Secretary
of State, in Polk's cabinet, jealous of the extension of
free territory, compromised on the 49th parallel. The
great Missouri senator, Benton, joined Calhoun, and
thus consented to the only compromise the old Roman
was ever known to have made.

Had Jefferson been President, it is safe to assume
that "54-40" would have been the line adopted, and
there would have been no fight either.

The Federal i^arty opposed the acquisition of Louis-
iana. But one man of this party, Mr. Dayton, voted

47

with the majority to ratify the Treaty. The Treaty
ratified, their opposition did not cease. \Adien the bill
was brought in to admit Louisiana as a state Josiah
Quincy said from his place in Congress : 'Tt is my de-
Hberate opinion that if this bill passes, the bonds of the
Union are virtually dissolved ; that the states which com-
pose it are free from their moral obligation, and that
as it will be the right of all, so it will l)e the duty of
some, definitely to prepare for separation, amicably if
they can, violently, if they must."

The Legislature of Massachusetts resolved : "That
the annexation of Louisiana to the Union transcends the
constitutional power of the government of the United
States. It forms a new confederacy to which the states,
as united by the former compact, are not bound to ad-
here." Suppose the treaty had not have been ratified,
and that this purchase had not been consummated. When
Wellington defeated Napoleon at Waterloo, Louisiana
would have fallen into the hands of the English, and
thus surrounded on all sides by our old enemy we would
have lost all and more than all we had fought seven
long years to gain. It cost the fraction of one cent per
acre, but he is a small thinker who values this purchase
in dollars and cents. Had the ideas and purposes of
the Federal party prevailed, American independence would
have lasted less than a dozen years. We would not only
have lost the country West of the Mississippi, but in
losing that territory we would have lost the whole coun-
try.

When a bill was brought forward in Congress pro-
viding for the temporary government of this territory,
it was opposed by the same party, and the plan proposed
by that party was the English Colonial system — the very
same system sought to be fastened now upon the Philip-
pine Islands. And herein lies our immediate danger.
It does not lie in expansion, but in the character and
purpose of expansion. The principles of the Declara-

48

tion of Independence must be destroyed, or Colonialism
must fail : hence the attack now made upon Mr. Jeffer-
son, and upon the Declaration.

Did Jefferson favor expansion? Certainly, and if
anything is written in the book of fate, it is that Cuba
shall ultimately form one of the brioiitest stars in the
constellation of American states. There is one thing
which governments cannot do, and that is to permanent-
ly arrest the march of human destiny. You might as
well try to stoj) the tides of the ocean, or ])revent the
circling of the stars in their courses. Left to the poli-
ticians, Cuba would now be dying under the cruel heel
of Spanish dominion. But the people of the United
States rose in their majesty and might as one man, and
said she should be free ! And the world looked on with
astonishment and wonder. The angels looked down and
clapped their hands for joy at the magnificent spectacle
of one people going to war that another, and an alien
people, might be Free! There is nothing like it in the
books.

Jefferson was an '^expansionist !" And so is every
well informed and true American. They believe, as did
Jefferson, in American but not in European expansion.
They believe in the widest possible expansion of the
American jirinciple of government. They believe that
as contiguous territory is occupied by American citi-
zens and form Republican governments, they should be
admitted as American states. Who will undertake to
fetter the limbs of this giant Republic? Congress may
make as many treaties as she will, and adopt as many
resolutions guaranteeing her future purpose, but she
will break them all, and her course will be onward to a
limit no man can describe. When the Nicaragua or
Panama canal shall be built, T care not how many re-
strictions may hedge it about, the country contiguous
and at either end will be occupied and developed by
American citizens, with American capital, and no

49

amount of European bluster and intrigue will prevent
its domination and control by the American people.

A recent writer has said : ''It is a magnificent thing
for civilization that such a tremendous power for good
should, in the course of societary evolution, pass into
the hands of one great nation which stands for free
Democratic institutions, and has reached its present
greatness through the persistent development of its own
industrial, social and moral civilization. No nation ever
had so great a responsibility, so imperative an obligation,
to hold fast and true these vital principles, in whatever
influence it may come to exercise upon the world policies
of the future. The danger is that American statesmen
will not adequately realize that the first conditions of
holding true to these principles in our foreign relations
is to hold true to them at home. To surrender any feature
of democratic principles in favor of a quasi-monarchial
type of 'expansion,' or lessen the effort to build up the
highest and finest type of free and prosperous domestic
civilization, as an example and guidance to all nations in
favor of a greedy chase after foreign possessions, will
simply mean reducing the quality of our influence and
international affairs to the old familiar level of militar-
ism, land grabbing and colonization by force. Have our
publicists and statesmen begun to realize the character
of our world influence in the future is going to be deter-
mined by the direction we give to our national policies
now ?"

In one of those splendidly logical and patriotic
speeches on the "Lecompton Constitution," Senator
Stephen A. Douglass, the great student of Jefferson, said :
'T deny the right of Congress to force a slave holding
state upon an unwilling people. I deny their right to
force a free state upon an unwilling people. I deny their
right to force a good thing upon a people who are un-
willing to receive it. The great principle is the right of
every community to judge and decide for itself whether

50

a thing is right or wrong, wliether it would be good or
evil for them to adopt it ; and the right of free action,
the right of free thought, the right of free judgment
upon the question is dearer tO' every true American than
any other under a free government."

He said further, ''Whenever you put a limitation
upon the right of any people to decide what laws they
want, you have destroyed the fundamental principle of
self-government."

Jefferson, next to Monroe himself, was the real au-
thor of the "Monroe Doctrine," although the credit is
sought for John Quincy Adams. In a report recently
made to the Massachusetts Historical Society by Charles
Francis Adams and Washington C. Ford this claim is
made. It is true that John Quincy Adams was a mem-
ber of Mr. Monroe's cabinet, and that he warmly ap-
proved that great doctrine, but Mr. Jefferson was en-
titled to the greatest credit for the following reasons :
First, l)ecause he was the author of the Declaration of
Independence out of wliich this doctrine spring's, and a
part of which it is; and, second, because Mr. Monroe
was Mr. JefTerson's pupil wdthout whose opinion he
never acted on any great measure; and, third, because
before preparing his message embodying* this great meas-
ure he laid it l)efore the Sage of Monticello who was
then eighty years of age. Mr. Jefferson's letter is too
long to quote, but the whole letter reads like a l)attle
shout, and led to the immortalization of the name of
James Monroe. Among other things the grand old Jef-
ferson said; "We will oppose, with all our means, the
forcible interposition of any other power, as auxiliary,
stipendiary, or any other form of pretext, and most es-
pecially tlieir transfer to anv ])ower 1>y conquest, cession
or ac(iuisition in any other way. * ''' * '■" As this
may lead to war, the declaration of which requires an
Act of Congress, the case should be laid before them

51

for consideration at their first meeting;'," etc. There it

is as strong as human language can make it.

Afterward Russia, which owned Alaska, wishing to
icxtend her possesssions on the Pacific Ocean, was ne-
gotiating wnth Spain for the purchase of California.
President Monroe notified both powers that the United
States was not an indifTerent observer, and the subject
was promptly dropped. Wdiat a splendid exhibition of
American backbone was this ! What a lusty crow for
so small a bantam ! Spain, one of the great worlcl
powers, and the Russian Bear, whose growl made all
Europe tremble, both bowed respectfully before the
''Monroe Doctrine" within a few months after its pro-
mulgation ! And yet we sometimes hear of the "Color-
less" Administration of James Monroe.

The best evidence the committee above mentioned
could obtain for claiming the credit for Mr. Adams was
found in some private memorandum kept by Mr. Adams,
in which he stated to the Russian Minister the policy of
the United States, as follows :

First : That the institution of government to be
lawful must be pacific, that is, founded upon the con-
sent and by the agreement of the governed ; and, second,
that each nation is exclusively the judge of the govern-
ment best suited to itself, and that no other nation can
justly interfere by force to impose a different govern-
ment upon it. A necessary consequence of the second of
these principles is that the United States recognize in
other nations the right which they claim and exercise
for themselves of establishing and modifying their own
governments, according to their own judgments and
views of their interests, not encroaching upon the rights
of others.

Mr. JefTerson said further, in his letter to Mr. Mon-
roe :

'T candidlv confess, that I have ever looked on
Cuba as the most interesting addition which could ever

52

be made to onr system of states. The control, which,
with Florida Point, this island would give us over the
Gulf of Mexico, and the countries and isthmus border-
ing on it, as well as all those whose waters flow into it,
would till up the measure of our political well being. I
.have been so long weaned from political subjects, and
have so long ceased to take any interest in them, that I
am sensible I am not c|ualitied to offer opinions on them
worthy of an)- attention. But the (juestion now pro-
posed ( llic Alonroe Doctrine) involves consequences so
lasting, and eft'ects so decisive of our future destinies,
the greatest since that of Independence, as to rekindle
all the interest T have heretofore felt on such occasions,
and to induce me to the hazard of opinions, which will
prove onlv mv wish to contribute still mv mite towards
anything which may be useful to our country. And
praying you to accept it at only what it is worth, I add
the assurances of my constant and affectionate friend-
ship and respect. Th. Jefferson." The Kaizer thought
to crack this doctrine in Venezuela. He has changed
his notion.

Tt may be old-fashioned, but this sketch will not be-
complete without quoting a paragraph from the greatest
state ])aper ever laid before any people, to-wit : the first
inaugural address of Mr. Jefferson :

''About to enter, fellow citizens, on the exercise
of duties which comprehend everything dear and valu-
able to you, you should understand what I deem the es-
sential ])rinci])les of our government, and consequently
those which ought to share its administration. I will
compress them within the narrowest compass thev will
bear, stating the general principle, Init not all its limita-
tions. Equal and exact justice to all men, of whatever
state or persuasion, religious or iiolitical; jjcace, com-
merce and honest friendshi]), witli all nations — entang-
ling alliances with none; the support of the state gov-
ernments in all their rights, as the most competent ad-

ministrations for our domestic concerns and the surest
bulwarks against anti-republican tendencies ; the preser-
vation of the general government in its present con-
stitutional vigor, as the sheet anchor of our peace at
home and safety abroad; a jealous care of the right of
election by the people — a mild and safe corrective of
abuses which are lopped b}- the sword of revolution where
peaceable remedies are unprovided; absolute acquiescence
in the decisions of the majority — the vital principle of
republics from which there is no appeal but to force,
the vital principle and immediate parent of despotism ;
a well disciplined militia our best reliance in peace and for
the first moments of war, till regulars may relieve them;
the supremacy of the civil over the military authority.
Economy in the public expense, that labor may be lightly
burdened ; the honest payment of our debts and sacred
preservation of the public faith ; encouragement to agri-
culture, and of commerce as its handmaid; the diffu-
sion of information and the arraignment of all abuses
at the bar of public reason ; freedom of religion ; freedom
of the press ; freedom of persons under the protection
of the habeas corpus ; and trial by jury impartially se-
lected— these principles form the bright constellation
which has gone before us, and guided our steps through
the age of the revolution and reformation.

''The wisdom of our sages, and the blood of our
heroes have been devoted to i"his attainment. They
should be the creed of our political faith, the text of civil
instructions — the touchstone by which to try the services
of those we trust; and should we wander from them in
moments of error or alarm, let us hasten to retrace our
steps and to regain the road which alone leads to peace,
liberty and safety."

No room here for the interference of the Federal
Executive between the employer and his employees, nor
for the contemplated but dangerous constitutional amend-
ment authorizing such interference in the settlement of

54

tlie Trust question. The contemplated remedy is worse
than the disease. If tlie Federal Government is em-
powered to thns interfere in the private concerns of the
people then all the safeguards offered in the Amend-
ments to the Constitution l>efore its adoption by the
States will have disappeared and we will have Ab)^olutism
the most odious and disastrous in the whole range of
history.

He was the greatest executive officer who ever pre-
sided at the White House. He knew men as well as
measures. Idiere was never a jar or a note of discord in
his cabinet. At the expiration of his second term he
said that if he had all the universe in which to choose
he would not select a different cabinet. He was, after
Washington, the best chief magistrate of a republic the
world has ever known.

He was opposed to paternalism in all its forms, and
this growing sentiment must be uprooted and destroyed,
and individualism be restored again in all its beauty,
strength and glory, or the government as founded cannot
survive. Men must learn not to look to the Govern-
ment for the protection of their interests but learn again
that tlicy iinist protect the Govcrniucnt. We must cease
regarding the government as a bountiful parent, and
look upon it simply as an instrument for the execution
of the ]3eople's will. This true conception of govern-
mental ])ower will speedily end, not only the evils be-
fore mentioned, but it will also destroy that rapidly grow-
ing and dangerous theory of Governmental ownership
of ''public utilities," which is the full fruition of pater-
nalism as taught by Protectionism.

On this fjuestion Mr. Jefferson said : 'AVhat an
augmentation of the held for jobbing, ])lumbing, office-
building and office-hunting would be produced by the as-
sumption of such powers into the hands of the general
government." 'Tf," said the statesman, "our country

55

ever comes to destruction, it will be through consolida-
tion first, and then corruption, its natural consequence."

If the time should ever come when the Government
shall own and operate the Public Utilities, the railroads,
telegraphs, coal mines, etc., etc., it will be the end
of Jefferson's dreams, and Washington's prayers. The
appalling number of government employees, more num-
erous than Xerxes' army, will spread over the land like
the locusts of Egypt, eating up and destroying its sub-
stance, corrupting the public service from President to
Constable. The wheels of Time will have rolled us
round and back again through another French Revolu-
tion, only to emerge into a night of chaos and despair.

Let us be warned in time against the sophistical
pleadings of those restless agitators, whose quack nos-
trums are so eloquently prescribed for all the ills, fancied
or real, of the body politic, as well as against those who
believe that the people need a Master.

Our safety lies in steering our way between Cor-
porate greed and its corrupting influences on the one
hand, and Socialism on the other, the Scylla and Charyb-
dis of modern politics.

From all these vagaries and experiments, in the
language of Mr. Jefferson, "let us hasten to retrace our
steps and to regain the road which alone leads to peace,
liberty and safety."

^6

APPENDIX.

William Lowe Married Nancy Jones about. .1790

Squire Lowe No record.

Jererniah Lowe Married Mary Webster about. 1830

Louis Lowe No record.

Robert Lowe ■ Dance LS —

Elizabeth Lowe. Married John Jump 18 —

Marksberry Lowe ■ • • Married Moore 18—

Nancy Lowe Married Samuel Llenry 18 —

Moses Lowe Married Nancy Watson Porter. 1824

N'ow come the descendants of Moses Lozve:

William T. Lowe Married Jane Ashberry 1842

Francis Marion Lowe Married H. Amanda Williams

about 1858

James Franklin Lowe Married Elizabeth Lucas 1860

Richard Montgomery Lowe IMarried Carry Gregg 1859

Georgie A. Lowe Married, 1st, John Thompson. 1856

Georgie A. Lowe Married, 2dJohn A. Lemon. .1861

Margaret C. Lowe Married Richard Ashcraft... .1863

Mary Lowe Married Eugene Ashcraft. . . 1865

Moses Lowe, Jr. .Married Mary Hutchinson. . .1860

John Watson Lowe never married. Killed at the age of eighteen
in the Battle of Chickamauga, 1863.

J. M. Lowe IMarried Mary E. McWilliams.1876

John Roger Lowe, born Dec. 30th (son of J. M. and M. E.
Lowe), 1876.

Florence Marion Lowe, born June 15th (daughter of J. M.
and M. E. Lowe), 1878.

J. R. Lowe married Virginia Dillingham, and has two children,
Mildred Elizabeth and Florence iMarion. Florence Marion Lowe mar-
ried ilughes Bryant.

Robert Porter of Pennsylvania. .Married Elizabeth Watson

about 1776

57

Watson Porter Married Elizabeth Barnett. . . 1820

John Porter • • • Married Nancy Oder 1821

Andrew Porter Married, 1st, Widow Morris . 18 —

Andrew Porter Married, 2d, Mary Pollard. . .18—

Margaret Porter Married Preston Kennett 18 —

Elizabeth Porter • • . . . Married Dr. Wilson 18 —

William Porter Married, — -Collins

Thomas Porter Married Mary Oder, about. . . 1800

The Oders were John, Joseph, Martin, Barnett, William,
Thomas, James and Reuben, and five girls, Nancy, Millie, Betsey,
Mary and Sallie.

Descendants of Thomas Porter, who zvas born January 7thj
1774:

Sally Porter, born Aug. 10, 1800. .Married Leroy Beagle, about 1820

Elizabeth Porter, born July 30,
1805 No record.

Polly Porter, born May 11, 1811. .Married Benjamin Asbury ..1821

Margaret Porter, born Feb. 15,

1820 Married Benjamin Lanter 1840

Robert Porter, born Aug. 22, 1803. Married Elizabeth Kendall. . .1830

Rufus Porter Died young.

Joseph Porter, born Feb., 1813... No record.

William Porter, born Apr. 12, 1818.Married Nancy Moore 1836

Nancy Watson Porter, born

March 22, 1807 Married Moses Lowe 1824

Alexander Cleveland Married Mill}^ Presley, about. 1740

Alexander Cleveland, Jr Married Margaret Dolittle. . .

Elizabeth Cleveland Married John McWilliams,

Dec. 10 1779

Descendants of John McWilliams:

Alexander Cleveland McWilliams. .Married Jane Breedlove 18 —

Eli Cleveland McWilliams Married Sally Hardin 18 —

Capt. John Cleveland McWilliams. Married Nancy Hockaday. ..1813

Descendants of Capt. John Cleveland McWilliams:

James McWilliams Married Elizabeth Munday.. .18—

Schuyler M. McWilliams Married Sally Newlan 18—

Richard Cleveland McWilliams. .Married Mary A. McMurtry.18—

Samuel Hockaday McWilliams. . .Married Nannie McCorkle. ..18 —

Sydney G. McWilliams Married Emerine McCorkle. .18 —

Dudley McWilliams Married Amanda Medora

r Elder 18—

58

Elizabeth McWilliams Married James Henshaw 18—

Nanny jMcWilliams Married James Henshaw 18 —

Dr. John Q. A. McWilliams Married Emma Elder

McCord 18—

Descendants of J. Q. A. McWilliams'.

Mary Elizabeth :Mc Williams Married J. M. Lowe, Mar. 15,1876

J. Roger Lowe, born Dec. 3G, 1876. Married Virginia Dillingham.
F. Marion Lowe, born June 15,

1878 Married Hughes Bryant

Nozv come descendants of Eli Cleveland McWilliams:

Oliver Cleveland McWilliams...,

Dr. James McWilliams

John Cleveland McWilliams

Descendants of Alexander Cleveland McWilliams:

Oliver Cleveland ]\IcWilliams, married Kate George 1868

George McWilliams, son of O. C. and Kate^ married Cora

Cowgill , 1895

Pearl iMcWilliams, daughter of O. C. and Kate, married James
Barton 1894

Sydney McWilliams married Francis Ware 1868

Homer McWilliams, son of Syd. and Francis, unmarried.

Eliza Jane McWilliams married Davis N. Cooper 1840

Jos. A. Cooper, son of Jane, married Pocahontas Bell 1873

Amanda McWilliams married E. J. O'Rear 1844

Almira McWilliams married Davis N. Cooper 1854

Lucien D. Cooper, son of Almira, married Lillian D. McWilliams. 1885

Ethel Cooper, daughter of the above.

Joseph Cooper, son of the above.

Harriet McWilliams married John W. Buttner 18 —

Ophelia McWilliams married Brutus Crooke 18—

Corine McWilliams, unmarried.

Virginia D. McWilliams married Geo. W. Warder 18—

Julia McWilliams married David Russell 18 —

59

OCKER

MAY 1 3 1993