Page:Challenge of Facts and Other Essays.djvu/309

 . &mdash; Compromise between them. &mdash; The contemporaneous transfer of power to the maases with civil liberty, in the place of anarchistic liberty. &mdash; Reasons for the power of democracy. &mdash; Economic causes of the present social and political revolution. &mdash; This has given power and diances to the masses. &mdash; Dedine of representative institutions. &mdash; Risks of high organization. &mdash; Prophets are either optimists or alarmists. &mdash; Error of optimists. &mdash; Error of alarmists. 

fact which gives chief value to the study of the early history of the United States is that in it we can see a society begin from its earliest germ and can follow its growth. It is a case of an embryo society, not however of savages but of civilized men. They came armed with the best knowledge and ability which men, up to the time of their migration, had won. They began with the laws, customs, institutions, arts, and sciences of their mother-country at the time, and of course they tried to imitate the social organization in which they had been brought up. This they did not do, however, without some variations, for they had notions of their own about government, religion, and social order. The emigrants were, in many cases, the radicals of their time and in coming to America they seized the opportunity to try to realize some of their pet ideas.

Very soon also it became apparent that transplanted institutions and customs must undergo change. Under changed physical and social circumstances the social relations alter and the social organization is forced to adapt itself. That is what happened here; and it is the perception and appreciation of such changes, in their causes and nature, which is one of the chief objects to be sought in the study of our colonial history. It is often said that this colonial history is dull and insipid, and so it is if you look only at the magnitude and complication of the events or the grade of the passions at play and the interests at stake. It is from the point of