a wave of enthusiasm which won the French to the cause of the Colonies.

At the age of 81 years this old young-hearted philosopher is found taking a most prominent part in the deliberations of the constitutional convention held in Philadelphia from May to September, 1787. His wisdom and counsel often prevailed in those long and stormy sessions. His love of country and faith in democracy gave him a vision of the future greatness of America that few in his time possessed.

Thomas Jefferson, Democrat.-Thomas Jefferson, tall, rawboned, sandy complexioned, was a striking personality. In his youth, active in social life, he nevertheless found opportunity for long hours of study, particularly in philosophic subjects, which he was wont to discuss with his seniors.

Jefferson was a radical Democrat. Living to-day, he undoubtedly would be found in legislative halls and upon the platform giving voice in protest against the present tendency-marked as well in his time-of too much government and too little reliance upon the people to govern themselves.

Admitted to the bar at the age of 24 years, he quickly gained place of leadership by reason of his ability as a thinker and speaker, first in Virginia, then in the Colonies, where he was constantly employed in fighting oppressive British regulations and interference in the affairs of his country. Staunch in his defense of the rights of the people, he caused Virginia to pass many laws of a revolutionary character, among which was the abrogation of the rights of nobility, entailed estates, and the absolute right of religious liberty.

As a youth he had engraved upon a seal, as the motto for his life, the phrase "Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God." In the spirit of this battle cry he signed the agreement not to import British goods into the Colonies; followed Patrick Henry in open rebellion against the mother country, as one of the committee appointed to draft plans for organizing the militia in support of the rebellion.

He was a member of that famous group which, upon call of the resolution proposed by Richard Harry Lee, wrote the Declaration of Independence. Although the youngest, his dominant personality and exceptional ability caused him to be chosen chairman of that committee, which included such stalwarts as John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Rogers Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston. The instrument practically as written by Jefferson was unanimously adopted to become for all time one of the immortal documents relating to human rights and self-government.

In the trying days during and following the Revolutionary War Thomas Jefferson was a member of the Continental Congress at the age of 32 years, Governor of Virginia, ambassador to France, suc

ceeding Doctor Franklin, recalled to becomme Secretary of State in President Washington's Cabinet, where he bitterly opposed the policy of Alexander Hamilton in his endeavor to extend the powers of government over the people.

On a platform based upon his ideas and policies, he was elected the third President of the United States as a Democratic-Republican over his opponent, who as a Federalist, espoused the principles of Hamilton. During the first years of his two terms as President, he completed the negotiations with France by which the vast domain of over 900,000 square miles lying west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains, known as "the Louisiana Territory " came into the possession of the United States. The purchase price of $15,000,000 was at the time considered exorbitant and created much adverse criticism in which Jefferson was denounced as an "imperialist," and as having forsaken his democratic principles. The reasons for this action on his part were that he saw the advantage of gaining control of the Mississippi River and the port of New Orleans, and that by this purchase the United States would be left unhampered by foreign countries in developing her republican form of government.

The outstanding events of his public life are to be found in (1) the writing of the Declaration of Independence; (2) enactment of the statute for religious liberty; (3) founding the University of Virginia; and (4) the purchase of the Louisiana Territory.

More than any other President, Jefferson advocated a great number of the broad fundamental principles of the laws of our land, among which are to be found—

Republican government and sovereignty of the people.
Opposition to privileged orders of nobility and entail.

Universal education and circulating libraries.

Separation of church and state.

Freedom of thought and speech.

Local self-government.

Economy in government and small public debt.

A policy of peace.

Political equality and universal suffrage.

Strict construction of the Constitution and State sovereignty.

Well-trained militia and small standing Army.

Metallic money-gold or silver-as standard of coinage.

Opposition to bounties and monopolies.

Emancipation and deportation of slaves.

Expansion of United States to include Louisiana, Florida, Cuba, and Canada.

Maintenance of Indian reservations.

Judiciary beyond control of legislative and executive branches.

Small Navy.

Opposition to nepotism.

Rotation in office.

Opposition to secession of States, North or South.

Abraham Lincoln, the Emancipator.-George Washington gave us the Union. Abraham Lincoln saved the Union.

Log cabins were common in this country 100 years ago. It was not a log cabin that gave distinction to Abraham Lincoln, although he was born in the poorest of such cabins on February 12, 1809.

His honors were not conferred upon him because of a university education. Two short terms in a Kentucky school, followed by three in Indiana, less than a year in all, does not give much foundation for scholastic attainments.

Favorable attention was not accorded to this humble mountaineer through any physical beauty, for never has there been a more ungainly, awkward individual before the public, seeking its favor and suffrage, than was Abraham Lincoln.

To study the life of Lincoln makes one almost believe God purposely placed every conceivable handicap upon him just to prove his staying qualities, and to set an example in purpose, principle, and perseverance that would act as an inspiration for young and old possessed of the ambition and endurance, the vision and character, necessary to success.

Abraham Lincoln was homely, yet he possessed the beauty of soul dedicated to relieving the burdens and sorrows of humanity.

He was a rail splitter. In his rugged physical strength he was as gentle as a woman.

His was a lowly birth, yet "his spirit is the richest legacy of the United States."

With his sense of humor and ability as a story teller there was in him a supersense of justice, and he often fitted a story to emphasize a truth that otherwise might have been forgotten.

He was a "saddlebag " lawyer, yet with a copy of Blackstone, a Webster's Dictionary, and the fundamental law of God and human rights in his heart and head he won his way to the respectful consideration of all opponents.

Often defeated, ever handicapped, he possessed the great faculty of recognizing his own faults and the courage to overcome them. His heart made sore and heavy by the loss of the one woman he most loved, he poured out his love to all humanity. He was the nation incarnate. In all its struggles, its doubts, its agony, and in the solemn days of victory Abraham Lincoln lived alone for his country. "A house divided against itself can not stand." Upon that issuethe preservation of the Union-Abraham Lincoln was elected President of the United States. Tolerant with all who opposed, kind to

all who hated, charitable to those who denounced, he held firmly to the single purpose of saving the Union, in the belief that in union only could our Nation endure.

The beauty of diction, the reverence, sympathy and love, the magnanimity and charity, and the vision of the worth of the price paid for the preservation of our Union, as set forth in his Gettysburg speech, will make him acclaimed after all other orators are forgotten. No one man has ever rendered greater service nor paid a greater price for faithful performance. As he has given us a rich legacy in his spirit and example, so he has left us a great responsibility

That we highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this Nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom; and that government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish from the earth.

The winning of the West.-In the original grant of character to the several Colonies by Great Britain, the western limits were practically undefined. Several of the Colonies claimed territory extending westward as far as the Mississippi River and north of the Ohio to the Great Lakes.

In the compromises made, composing the differences between the Colonies, it was agreed to define the western boundaries of such Colonies to more restricted areas, dedicating the disputed territory to the United States, to be known as the "Northwest Territory," which at the time was occupied by French and British trading posts.

This area included what are now the States of Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, and Wisconsin. All territory lying west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains, from the Gulf of Mexico to an undetermined northern limit, was then a possession of Spain known as the "Louisiana Territory," transferred by Spain to France and then sold in 1803 to the United States.

With the exception of a few venturesome spirits who found their way across the mountains south of the Ohio River and as far west as the Mississippi, this land of ours was an unknown wilderness to the settlers of the Colonies. Alive with deer, buffalo, and small game, rich in timber, fertile of soil, watered by numberless rivers and lakes, America at the close of the War of the Revolution still awaited discovery.

The thrilling story of the winning of the West is a series of events accomplished not by military force, rather by the efforts of a host of hardy pioneers who, with indomitable fortitude and incredible labor, won in succession the swamps, rolling prairies, forests, plains, rugged mountains, and the fruitful Pacific slope.

No single individual dominated this vast domain. It was the rank and file who conquered in this battle of the wilderness. Its conquest was not quickly accomplished. As in all great movements, leader

ship was developed, with here and there a man who became identified with some particular period or section.

Daniel Boone.-A native of North Carolina, born and developed under conditions that gave him physical strength and endurance beyond the average, a courage, daring, and self-reliance that peculiarly fitted him for what he declared to be the mission of his life— "ordained of God to settle the wilderness." He was the highest type of wilderness explorer.

Undaunted by the unknown dangers of great swamps and forests, matching wits and woodscraft with the roving bands of hostile Indians, he led the first group of settlers across the Blue Ridge Mountains into the rich country of Kentucky.

Here, amidst untold hardships, privations, and danger, there was set up the beginning of what has grown to be a mighty State, rich in natural resources and richer still in the treasure of its manhood and womanhood, descendants as they are of the sturdy stock of Daniel Boone and those who followed his call to a land that "flows with milk and honey."

Stalwart in character as he was in physique, Daniel Boone was a fitting leader of brave men and faithful women. Never tiring in their labor of reclaiming the wilderness; frugal, self-sacrificing, devoted, and God-fearing, these hardy pioneers bred into the succeeding generations that strength of purpose, endurance, initiative, and determination which has contributed so much to the richness and virility of American character.

Born in 1769, he lived to the age of 86, and will continue to live throughout the annals of our history as the outstanding type of the early American. Brave to the point of foolhardiness, self-reliant to a degree that made him choose the loneliness and privations of the trackless forest to the comforts of civilization, he exemplified in his life the value of clean living, high principles, and hard labor.

George Rogers Clark.-Capt. George Rogers Clark was first the savior of the settlers in Kentucky from massacre by the Indians and then the hero of the conquest of the Northwest Territory. Following the service rendered in Kentucky, he led his small force of less than 200 men against the French outposts of southern Illinois. With their capture he turned his attention to the British garrison at Fort Sacksville on the Wabash River at Vincennes, Ind.

In the capture of this fort Captain Clark and his sturdy band accomplished one of the most difficult marches in military history. Crossing the "drowned lands" of southern Illinois in the month of February, 1779, they carried on through water often times above their waists, without provisions or supplies other than that carried upon their backs. Through a wilderness untraveled and unknown by white men, this small band of backwoodsmen took the British by sur