Page:Review of the Proclamation of President Jackson.djvu/44

 Independence; and therein to state my ideas of its effects upon the several Colonies, who, by their representatives, were parties to that instrument.

The true nature and intended effects of the Declaration, can never be understood, from a consideration of the manner in which it was executed, merely.

Whether it was produced by the agency of one, only, or by the joint agency of many, or by the several agencies of different persons co-operating to the same end, is of little consequence. Its object and intended effects must be inferred from its language, although if that is ambiguous, these may very properly be sought for in extraneous circumstances of any kind, whether these circumstances are found in the manner of the execution of the instrument, or in anything else.

Let us then, turn to the act itself, and judge from its contents, of its end and object, before we attempt to discover these last in any other way.

When so examined, the Declaration of Independence seems to be a manifesto, addressed to the world, that is to say, to the civilized world, designed to inform it of the pre-existence of a new event interesting to humanity, and of the causes and circumstances which had occasioned the occurrence of this new fact. Like the manifesto that generally accompanies or immediately follows every modern Declaration of War, which, in announcing the new relations of the belligerents, and narrating how these have been produced, it so contains an implied appeal to other States, and to posterity, for the justifications of those by whom this new state of things has been made necessary. Considered in this light, it asserts nothing but what had previously existed, although but recently; and its object is confined to the justification of that pre-existing state of things which it so announces. If this was its purpose, it cannot be considered as creating any new community, as ordaining any new government, or bestowing any new name; but as intended merely to announce the new condition in which former societies, under existing governments and names previously known, are placed. Its sole end, is to justify to others that new condition which has been recently assumed by those who utter the manifesto.