rican Liberty is the mere creature of rhetoric. It is a
survival from the time when the natural rights of man inspired a simple
faith, when eager citizens declared that kings were the eternal enemies
of Freedom. Its only begetter was Thomas Jefferson, and its gospel is
preached in the famous Declaration of Independence. The dogmatism and
pedantry upon which it is based are easily confuted. Something else
than a form of government is necessary to ensure political and personal
liberty. Otherwise the Black Republic would be a model to England. But
Jefferson, not being a philosopher, and knowing not the rudiments of
history, was unable to look beyond the few moral maxims which he had
committed to memory. He was sure that the worst republic was better
than the noblest tyranny the world had ever seen. He appealed not to
experience but to sentiment, and he travelled up and down Europe with
his eyes closed and his mind responsive only to the echoes of a vain
theory. "If all the evils which can arise among us," said he, "from the
republican form of our government, from this day to the Day of
Judgment, could be put into a scale against what France suffers from
its monarchical form in a week, or England in a month, the latter
would preponderate." Thus he said, in sublime ignorance of the past, in
perfect misunderstanding of the future. And his empty words echo to-day
in the wigwams of Tammany.

All forms of government have their strength and their weakness. They are
not equally suitable to all races and to all circumstances. It was
this obvious truth that Jefferson tore to shreds before the eyes of his
compatriots. He persuaded them to accept his vague generalities as
a sober statement of philosophic truth, and he aroused a hatred of
kingship in America which was comic in expression and disastrous in
result. It was due to his influence that plain citizens hymned the
glories of "Guillotina, the Tenth Muse," and fell down in worship before
a Phrygian cap. It was due to his influence that in 1793 the death
of Louis XVI. was celebrated throughout the American continent with
grotesque symbolism and farcical solemnity. A single instance is enough
to prove the malign effect of Jefferson's teaching. At Philadelphia the
head of a pig was severed from its body, and saluted as an emblem of the
murdered king.

"Each one," says the historian, "placing the cap of liberty upon his
head, pronounced the word 'tyrant'! and proceeded to mangle with