Page:History of the United States of America, Spencer, v1.djvu/440



The dependence, then, of the colonies upon Great Britain, at the time when the British Parliament declared its own right to make laws for them in all cases whatsoever, and undertook to give effect to this declaration by taxation, was a dependence of parchments and of proclamations, unsanctioned by the laws of nature, disavowed by the dictates of reason. To this condition, however, the colonies submitted as long as they were suffered to enjoy the rights of Englishmen. The attempt to tax them by a body in which they had and could have no representative, was in direct violation of those rights. The acts of Parliament were encountered by remonstrance, deprecated by petition, and resisted by force. Ten years of controversy, and more than one of civil war, preceded the declaration, "that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British crown, and that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain, is, and ought to be, totally dissolved."

The union of the colonies had preceded this declaration and even the commencement of the war. The declaration was joint, that the United Colonies were free and independent states, but not that any of them was a free and independent state, separate from the rest. In the Constitution of this Commonwealth (Massachusetts) it is declared, that the body politic is formed by a voluntary association of individuals; that it is a social compact, by which the whole people covenants with each citizen, and each citizen with the whole people, that all shall be governed by certain laws, for the common good. The body politic of the United States was formed by the voluntary association of the people of the United Colonies. The Declaration of Independence was a social compact, by which the whole people covenanted with each citizen of the United Colonies, and each citizen with the whole people, that the United Colonies were, and of right ought to be, free and independent states. To this compact, union was as vital as freedom or independence. From the hour of that declaration, no one of the States whose people were parties to it, could, without violation of that primitive compact, secede or separate from the rest. Each was pledged to all, and all were pledged to each by a concert of souls, without limitation of time, in the presence of Almighty God, and proclaimed to all mankind. The colonies were not declared sovereign states. The term sovereign is not even to be found in the Declaration; and far, very far was it from the contemplation of those who composed, or of those who adopted it, to constitute either the aggregate community, or any one of its members, with absolute, uncontrollable or despotic power. They are united, free and independent States. Each of these properties is equally essential to their existence. Without union the covenant contains no pledge of freedom or independence; without freedom, none of independence or union; without independence, none of union or freedom.

In the history of the world, this was the first example of a self-constituted nation proclaiming to the rest of mankind the principles upon which it was associated, and deriving those principles from the laws of nature. It has sometimes been objected to the paper, that it deals too much in abstractions. But this was its characteristic excellence; for upon those abstractions hinged the justice of the cause. Without them, our revolution would have been hut a successful rebellion. Right, truth, justice, are all abstractions. The Divinity that stirs within the soul of man is abstraction. The Creator of the universe is a spirit, and all spiritual nature is abstraction. Happy would it be, could we answer with equal confidence another objection, not to the Declaration, but to the consistency of the people by whom it was proclaimed! Thrice happy, could the appeal to the Supreme Judge of the world for rectitude of intention, and with firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence for support, have been accompanied with an appeal equally bold to our own social institutions to illustrate the self-evident truths which we declared!

The Declaration of Independence was not a declaration of liberty newly acquired, nor was it a form of government. The people of the colonies were already free, and their forms of government were various. They were all colonies of a monarchy. The king of Great Britain was their common sovereign. Their internal administrations presented great varieties of form. The proprietary governments were hereditary monarchies in miniature. New York and Virginia were feudal