Page:American Archives, Series 4, Volume 1.djvu/12

PREFACE true foundations upon which our institutions rest, and the essential principles upon which their existence and perpetuity depend. It would furnish an ample vindication of those who have preceded us upon this stage, from the imputations which ignorance and prejudice have laboured to cast upon their motives and their acts; and our free institutions, by having their foundations laid open to the world, and the whole plan of their structure exhibited, will recommend themselves, more and more, to the philosophical inquirer, and to the affection and imitation of mankind.

If history be philosophy teaching by example, how infinitely instructive must be the history of such a country as this. The example which presents is the purity of principle, the singleness of effort, the stern adherence to constitutional right, the manly subordination to law, the indignant hostility to usurpation, which are manifested in every page of our past history; the philosophy it inculcates is—that the same purity of motive, the same respect for lawful authority, the same opposition to tyranny, the same vigilance in detecting the first insidious approaches of despotism, the same stern resolution in resisting its progress, which made us a Nation, are equally essential as the means of preserving those liberties our fathers bequeathed to us, and those institutions which they framed.

Even to this day much ignorance and much misapprehension prevail as to the principles of the American Revolution, and the true character and tendency of our institutions. Nor is this ignorance altogether confined to foreigners, it exists, to a great extent, among ourselves. By many superficial persons, it is supposed that the American Revolution began with the battle of Lexington, and terminated with the evacuation by the British Troops of these United States. It seems to be the opinion of such, that the whole history of that Revolution is to be found in the narrative of the campaigns of that War. Widely different from this is the truth, as developed by history; widely different was the opinion of those who mainly aided in severing the connexion with Great Britain. "What do we mean by the American Revolution?" asks one of the most prominent actors in those days: "Do we mean the American War? The Revolution was effected before the War commenced. The Revolution was in the mind and heart of the people. The radical change in the principles, opinions, sentiments, and affections of the people was the real American Revolution."

Even this language may, without due reflection, be understood in a sense not contemplated by its illustrious author. A full and careful examination of the history of the times will abundantly show, that so far as regards the nature and extent of their rights, and the foundations upon which they were claimed, there was, substantially, no revolution or change in the principles of the American People. The first emigrants to these shores brought with them, in their full vigour, in their original purity, and in their complete development, the principles of the American Revolution. They abandoned their native homes, they crossed the ocean, braved the horrours of an inhospitable clime, encountered the perils of the tempest, of war, and of famine, to escape the burthen of governmental oppression. They braved all, and encountered all, in the same cause for which their sons subsequently fought and bled. From the moment they placed their feet upon the soil of this Western Hemisphere, they asserted and maintained their independecy of the Parliamentary power of taxation, and denied, to that extent, the authority of a Legislature in which they were not, themselves, represented. Although the Colonies were, originally, settled by individual enterprise, and by insulated rather than combined efforts, yet the Colonists, at a very early period, perceived the advantages of union in repelling or resisting a common foe.

The Colonial history is replete with evidence of the truth of the preceding remarks. The first Legislative Assembly held in America was convened at Jamestown, in Virginia, as early as 1619. The proceedings of the Provincial Assemblies of Plymouth, in 1686, of Maryland, in 1650, of Rhode-Island, in 1668, of New York, in 1691, and of Massachusetts, in 1692, may be referred to, as showing how deeply rooted and how widely diffused, even at these remote periods, were the true and essential principles which, subsequently expanding into maturity, produced the fruits of the American Revolution. In 1696 a pamphlet was published, recommending the imposition of taxes in the Colonies by authority of Parliament. It did not escape the notice of the vigilant friends of American Liberty. Two answers to this publication appeared, which seem to have attracted general attention, and in which the doctrine was broadly asserted and maintained, that no such right existed in Parliament, because the Colonies were not represented in that body.

The idea of combining their efforts in matters of common interest to all may be traced back to a period nearly as remote. In 1690 a communication was addressed by the General Court of Massachusetts to the Governours of the neighboring Colonies, desiring them to appoint Commissioners to "meet, advise, and conclude upon suitable methods