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In the year 1857
. MACAULAY Hon.H.S.RandoU ,
VS. of New York wrote
JEFFERSON. to Lord Maoaulay ,
I the great historian
i of England , sending him a copy of the
life of Thomas Jefferson , which had
just appeared from the press. Lord
Macanlay replied at length in one of the
most remarkable letters that has ever
been written on the subject of American -
\ can representative government. This
letter has only been read by a very few
of the millions of American people , as it
I is not included in any of Lord
i Macaulay's collected works. It is the
most'terrible arraignment of represen
tative government that was ever penned ,
and , in the light of present develop
ments inthis [ country , is almost in the
' nature of a prophecy.
In an address delivered before the
literary societies of Western Reserve
college'at Hudson , Ohio , on July 2nd ,
l\ \ 1878 , Gen. Garfleld quoted the letter
almost in full and commented upon it
at some length. It is peculiarly inter
esting jist now , and below is given a
transcript of it.
"Holly Lodge , Kensington , London ,
May 23 , 1857. Dear Sir : You are sur
prised to learn that
A Forecast. I have not a high
opinion of Mr.
Jefferson , and I am surprised at your
surprise. I am certain that I never
wrote a line , and that I never in
parliament a place where it is the
fashion to court the populace uttered
a word , indicating an opinion that
the 'supreme authority in a state
ought to be trusted to the majority of
citizens told by the head ; in other words
to the poorest and most ignorant part of
society. I have long been convinced
that institutions purely democratic must ,
sooner or later , destroy liberty or civil
ization , or both. In Europe , where the
population is dense , the effect of .such
institutions would
In France. be almost instan
taneous. What
happened lately in France is an example.
In 1848 a pure democracy was established
there. During a short time there was
reason to expect a general spoliation , a
national bankruptcy , a new partition of
the soil , a maximum of prices , a ruinous
load of taxation laid on the rich for the
purpose of supporting the poor " in idle
ness. Such a system , would , in" twenty
years , have made France as poor and
barbarous as the France of the
Oarlovingians. Happily , the danger was
averted ; and now there is a despotism ,
a silent tribune , an enslaved. press.
Liberty is gone , but civilization has been
saved. I have not the smallest doubt
that , if we had apurely democratic gov
ernment here , the effect would be the
same. Either the poor would plunder
the rich and civilization would perish ,
or order and prosperity would be saved
by a strong military government , and
liberty would perish. You may think
that your country
United States.Not enjoys an exemp-
Exempt. tion from these
evils ; Iwill frankly
own to you that I am of a very different
opinion. Your fate I believe to be certain -
-tain , though it is deferred by a physical
cause. As long as you have a boundless
extent of fertile and unoccupied land ,
your laboring population will be far
more at ease than the laboring popula
tion of the old world ; and while.that is
the case the Jefferson politics may con
tinue to exist without causing any fatal
calamity. But the time will come when
New Egland will be as thickly settled as
Old England. Wages will be as low , and
will fluctuate as much with you as with
us. You will have your Manchesters
and Birminghams. And in those Man
chesters and Birminghams hundreds
and thousands of artisans will some
times be out of work. Then your in
stitutions will be fairly brought to the
test. Distress everywhere makes the
laborer mutinous and discontented ,
and inclines him to listen with eager
ness to agitators , who tell him' that it is
a monstrous iniquity that one man
should have a million while another
cannot get a full meal. In bad years
there is plenty of grumbling here , and
sometimes a little rioting ; but it matters
little , for here the sufferers are not the
rulers. The supreme power is in the
hands of a class , numerous indeed , but
select of an edu-
Class Government , cated 'class of a
classVhich is , and
knows itself to be , deeply interested in
the security of property and the main
tenance of order. Accordingly the
malcontents are gently but firmly re
strained. The bad time is got over ,
without robbing the wealthy to relieve
the indigent. The springs of national
prosperity soon begin to flow again ;
work is plentiful , wages rise , and all is
tranquillity and cheerfulness. I have
seen England pass , three or four times ,
through such critical seasons as I have
described. Through such seasons the
United States will have to pass in the
course of the next century , if not of
this. How will you pass through them ?
I heartily wish you good deliverance.
But my reason and my wishes are at
war , and I cannot help foreboding the
worst. It is quite plain that your gov
ernment will never
A Majority. be able to restrain
a distressed and
discontented majority. For , with you ,
the majority is the government , and has
the rich , who are always the minority ,
absolutely at its mercy. The day will
come when , in the state of New York , a
multitude of people , none of whom has
had more than half a breakfast , or ex
pects to have more than half a dinner ,
will choose a legislature. Is it possible
to doubt what sort of a legislature will
be chosen ? On one side is a statesman
preaching patience , respect for vested
rights , strict observance of public faith ;
on the other is a demagogue , ranting
about the tyranny of the capitalists and
usurers , and asking why anybody should
be permitted to drink champagne and
to ride in a carriage , while thousands of
honest folk are in want of necessaries.
Which of the two
Forecast of candidates is likely
Bryanarchy. to be preferred by
a workman who
hears his children cry for bread ? I
seriously apprehend you will , in some
such season of adversity as I have de
scribed , do things that will prevent pros
perity from returning ; that you wiu act
like people who should , in a season of
scarcity , devour all the seed corn , and
thus make the next year not one of
scarcity , but of absolute famine. There
will be , I fear , spoliation. The spolia
tion will increase the distress. The
distress will produce fresh spoliation.
There is nothing to stop you. Your
constitution is all sail and no anchor.
As I said before , when" fa , society nas
entered on its down ward progress , either
civilization or liberty must perish.
Either some Caesar or Napoleon will
seize the reins of government with a
strong hand , or your republic will be as
fearfully plundered and laid waste by
barbarians in the twentieth century as
thd Roman empire was in the fifth
with this difference , that the Huns and
Vandals who ravaged the Roman empire ,
came from without , and that your Huns
and Vandals will have been engendered
within your country by your own insti
tutions.
Thinking thus , of course I cannot
reckon Jefferson among the benefactors
of mankind.
Yours Respectfully ,
THOMAS BABINOTON MAOAULAY. "
Gen. Garfield admitted that this letter
contained much food for serious thought.
He says :
"It would be idle to deny that Mac-
aulay has pointed out what may become
serious dangers our future. But the
evils he complains of are by no means
confined to democratic governments ,
nor do they , in the main , grow out of
popular suffrage. If they do , England
herself has taken a dangerous step since
Macaulay wrote. Ten years after he
wrote she extended the suffrage to
800,000 of her wprkingmen , a class
hitherto ignored in politics. Whether
for weal or for woe , enlarged suffrage is
the tendency of all modern nations. "
All the earlier presidents , in their in
augurals , expressed themselves in doubt
as to the permaii-
Doubters. ence of the insti
tutions that were
founded upon the declaration of inde
pendence. They solemnly and piously
invoked the guidance of Almighty God
as they took up the burden of executive
management of the infant republic.
But as the decades have gone by , and
the great civil war has resulted in
cementing the sections together , it has
been pretty generally conceded that
there is nothing that can seriously
jeopardize our constitutional liberty. It
is probable that the attacks of demagogy ,
taking the form of anarchy and social
ismare to be the most serious strain that
the nation has ever had to withstand.
Jefferson , himself , was more fearful
of the growth of cities than of any
other thing. He
Large Cities" . could , by no possi
bility , have im
agined the wonderful impetus that has
been given along this line since he vaca
ted the presidential office. He insisted ,
on various occasions , that the cultiva
tors of the soil are the true patriots , on
whom the future permanency of the
republic rested.
It is today perfectly apparent that
there is a large portion of the voters "of
the American republic who do not know ,
and still others who do not pare , what
are the fundamental principles upon
which our government rests. Socialism ,
with its insidious claims , has taken pos
session of the populist party. The
democratic party , led by men full of
misinformation and personal ambitious
for place , seems to have adopted and
appropriated'to itself many of the in
sidious and dangerous dogmas.
Clearheaded statesmanship and true
wisdom are requisite in the present
critical epoch of this republic.
