1871.

The text of this and other superb works are available on-line from:

The Willison Politics and Philosophy Resource Center

http://willisoncenter.com/

Reprint and digital file January 28, 2005

The U.S. Democratic party has a heritage of lofty moral ideals. This excerpt regarding a discussion by an associate of Gen. Jackson on the point of Moral Reference which the Party regarded as its foundation, that being Jonathan Edwards' "Treatise on the Nature of True Virtue".

Page numbers in the original printing are shown in brackets.

[ 112 ] Edwards Memorial.

" Pres. Edwards combined the abstract habits of a philosopher with the practical tendencies of a pastor. He interested great minds. Robert Hall says, "I consider Jonathan Edwards the greatest of the sons of men. He ranks with the brightest luminaries of the Christian Church, not excluding any country or any age, since the apostolic." Sir James Mackintosh says of Edwards, "This remarkable man, the metaphysician of America.. His power of subtle argument, perhaps unmatched, certainly unsurpassed among men, was joined, as in some of the ancient mystics, with a character which raised his piety to fervor." Robert Morehead says, "Edwards comes nearer Bishop Butler, as a philosophical divine, than any other theologian with whom we are acquainted." I was once riding with an eminent author and statesman, who has held high offices under our national government was an ardent friend of Gen. Jackson, and an advocate of his policy; and, withal, a great

[ 113 ] Edwards Memorial

admirer of Pres. Edwards. Happening to speak of Edwards’s "Treatise on the Nature of True Virtue," the statesman remarked, "I regard that as the greatest ethical treatise in the English language, and as the real foundation of the Democratic party in the United States." It need not be said that the man who, in an obscure New-England parish, wrote such treatises as called forth the encomiums of Lord Kaimes, Dugald Stewart, Sir William Hamilton, —three philosophers who are known to have carefully studied these treatises, — must have been habitually absorbed in thought. While we are in Stockbridge, we visit the room which is called his "study;" but, in fact, his "study" was wherever he went. As he walked in the groves, or rode along the streams, he was meditating on great subjects ; and would often stop to write down his new thoughts, and pin the paper containing them upon his coat. "