People's Pilot, Volume 5, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 September 1895 — Jefferson's Political Maxims. [ARTICLE]

Jefferson's Political Maxims.

The People's Pilot contends that were Jefferson alive at the present day he would be found in the populist party. You old. dyed-in-the-wool, all-wool and a yard wide democrats should read your political father's maxims and then try to reconcile your modern democracy to them. Here they are. “Where are you at ? ” The legal equality of human beings. The people the only source of power. No hereditary offices, nor order, nor title. No taxation beyond actual public needs. No national banks nor bonds. No costly splendor of administration. No interference with freedom of thought or discussion. The civil authority superior to the military. No favored classes: no monopolies. Free and fair elections: universal suffrage. No public money spent without warrant of law’. No mysteries in government hidden from the public eye. Representatives bound by the instructions of their constituents. The constitution of the United States is a special grant of powers limited and definite. Freedom, sovereignty and independence of the respective states. Absolute severance of church and state. The union a compact—not a consolidation nor a centralization. Moderate salaries, economy and strict accountability. Gold and silver currency—supplemented by treasury notes bottomed on taxes. No state banks of issue. No expensive navy or diplomatic establishment. No internal revenue system. A complete separation of public moneys from bank funds. A progressive, or graduated tax laid upon wealth—the tax to grow increasingly heavy as the fortune was larger.