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The Mills Lecture

The Mills Lecture image
Parent Issue
Day
13
Month
April
Year
1894
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

The last number of the Students' Lecture association entertainments came off last evening in University hall. It was a lecture by the Hon. Roger Q. Mills, United States senator from Texas, on "Thomas Jefferson and the Principles of Free Government." The speaker went at once to his subject, and characterized Jefferson as a most remarkable man, a famous writer, civil leader, philosopher and saint. The speaker enumerated the attributes of greatness, and declared that when measured by such a standard, in his own field of action, there was but one Jefferson. A man who would become a leader should first know himself, and this lesson Jefferson had thoroughly learned. Grand men are raised up by Providence to fill great places in the onward march of the world's history. Jefferson appeared upon the scene when a creed of liberty was to be written. There was none other who could write it. Washington could wield the sword in wresting liberty from a tyrannical and oppressive monarch. Adams could with his eloquence fire the souls of men to heroic deeds of daring, but Jefferson alone could take the pen and formulate the creed of liberty. In this he was inspired from on high and had a prophetic vision of the future. He inherited his intense love of liberty and his unflinching courage from a sire whose ancesters came from Wales, and his polish and grace of manner from his mother in whose veins flowed the blood of the best of England's aristocracy. His ancestors were among those who favored all the reforms in England which brought liberty nearer to the public. When but a boy Jefferson went to hear Henry in the Virginia house of Burgesses and was thrilled with his oratory and its effect upon him was deep and lasting. When a young man he was elected to the legislature of his native state and introduced the first bill permitting slaveholders to manumit their their slaves, and from that time onward he never ceased to plead for the freedom of the colored race. With his clear insight into the future he saw the specks on the horizon which grew into the storm clouds of 1860 and bursting deluged the country in blood. He declared that the country would be punished for its offense in enslaving men and predicted the freedom of the slaves. He not only desired freedom for himself and his generation, but for all men and for future generations as well. Nor was political freedom alone the end of his creed of liberty. He was just as ardent an advocate of religious freedom. Believed that every mind should be untramelled and free to work out its highest destiny. He believed that the duty of government should end with the preventing of injury to one's fellowman. Believing in the equality of all men he opposed the laws of primogeniture which had obtained in England and had to some extent been transmitted here. He was an advocate of the laws of inheritance which prevailed here, whereby estates are divided equally among the heirs. He believed that so far as the law was concerned it should establish pecuniary equality as well as political. Believed man reached his highest estate when at peace with his surroundings and with nature. Jefferson was a student of nature and believed in the divinity of truth. It was never intended that the masses should have saddles strapped on their backs, upon which an aristocracy or privileged class should ride. Believing in all these things, in equality and God, he was necessarily a democrat. At 33 years of age, he was intrusted with the task of drafting the declaration of independence which through the eloquence of Adams was adopted and has become the creed of liberty for the world. Jefferson believed that government derived all its power from the consent of the governed, and that every man is a sovereign, a sovereign who has subjects. He objected to the constitution because it contained no bill of rights. His influence was largely instrumental in causing such a bill to be inserted. He believed in education, and was one of the best educated men of the country. Hamilton and Jefferson represented opposite views as to the proper extent of powers of the federal government, and this was the cause of the friction in Washington's cabinet. When Jefferson was driven from the cabinet the people began to separate into parties. The speaker reviewed the events of his public life from this time onward, and closed with a touching account of the closing scenes of the life of this great man. He told of the wish of Jefferson that he might die on the fourth of July. He depicted in pathetic terms the scenes about his death bed and the passing of his great spirit at high noon on the anniversary day of the nation's birth. He alluded also to the death of Adams a few hours later as the curtains of night were being drawn about the earth, and drew a beautiful imaginative picture of the delay of the heavenly chariot in its passage from Monticello to Quincy in order that these two great souls might journey together to the republic of the just on high. Although Mr. Mills was not in good voice, his address was an excellent one and was listened to by a thoroughly appreciative audience.