Speech Delivered by Senator Harry S. Truman to the Meeting of Young Democrats at Bolivar, Missouri

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and in AND RECORDS SPEECH DELIVERED BY SENATOR HARRY S. TRUMAN TO THE MEETING OF YOUNG DEMOCRATS AT BOLIVAR, MISSOURI, ON APRIL 12, 1938. It certainly is a pleasure and a privilege to be with the Young Democrats here in Bolivar tonight. I told my friends in Springfield today how very much I appreciate being with you in this part of the State. I am very fond of Bolivar and this community because I am a Baptist and you have the Southwest Baptist College here. My mother, father, and all my grand- parents were Baptists. Putin Wood Paragraph Tomorrow is the birthday of that great exponent of democracy and the founder of the Democratic Party -- Thomas Jefferson. When Jefferson was elected President of the United States in the year 1800 he found that the government had been, and the courts still were, in absolute control of the Federalist Party. He found the newspapers and the finances of the country under control of his political enemies. Even the historians of the day hated him and his political doctrines and have never done him justice. He found the money power in control of the government. He found special privilege had been the Federal policy. He proceeded to give the government back to the people. He made the courts conform to the Constitution and the ethics of justice, and stopped their partisan activities. When you read the history of his administration you wonder if you are not reading the history of the administrations of three other great Democratic Presidents -- Jackson, Wilson, and Franklin D. Roosevelt. Jefferson fought for the maintenance and restoration of Democratic principles of government. He put a stop to special privilege and restored the government to the people. He was one of our ablest and greatest Presidents. He presided over the destinies of the nation in one of the most troube lous times in all the history of the world. England, France, Austria, and Russia were at war. Napoleon was at the height of his career. Yet Jefferson NARA