sembled them, shoulder to shoulder, in resistance. "Our attachment to no nation upon earth," they declared, "should supplant our attachment to liberty."

It was this inestimable right,—the right of each of thirteen peoples to govern themselves in all their local concerns, as they pleased,-whose maintenance was their principal and ultimate aim; and that aim was realized, precisely as they had hoped and desired, when they organized, as a part of the dual system of government, thirteen self-governing commonwealths, each independent for local purposes. "Government of the people, by the people, and for the people," was thus finally assured, and the inmost wish of the democratic "Spirit of '76" was now satisfied.

A CONSTITUTIONAL SPIRIT.

Continuously throughout the colonial era in America, the colonists manifested a disposition toward the arrangement of their governmental affairs upon a basis of fixed principles; a basis now known as constitutional, and which has become a cardinal feature of our political system. The growth of this disposition was largely aided by the written charters under which many of the colonies were founded. But the proclivity was not born of these charters. It was a trait of the English people; one antedating the settlement of the colonies, and of which the forms employed in the charters were simply an outgrowth. It appears as a tendency in the request of the Virginia colonists in 1619 for a House of Burgesses, in the Mayflower Compact of 1620, and in the refusal of the citizens of Watertown in 1631, to pay taxes which had been ordered by a body not chosen by the people. It begins to assume definite form in the Connecticut written constitu

tion of 1639, and the Rhode Island town compacts of about the same date. It increases in prominence, and becomes more insistent, with the growth of the colonies. At the inception of the attempted interferences by the Parliament and the Crown with the political privileges which the people prize, this propensity has developed into a passion, and asserts itself boldly; and now the constitutional rights of the colonists are put forward in justification of their resistance. Long before the term "constitutional" comes into general use, the contentions of the colonists are seen to be based upon the idea that government ought to, and in their case, must, conform to a system of established rules; and this is constitutional government in its essence. The fourteen years' debate between the statesmen of the colonies and those of the mother country, which preceded the outbreak of the war, teemed with assertions by the former of the fundamental rights of the colonies as a component part of the Empire. The terms "constitution" and "constitutional" came into common use, and they characterized all the great deliverances of the provincial and continental congresses of the time, and were embodied in the resolutions of town meetings and other local assemblies. The individual colonists were to a large extent trained and educated into this spirit, and the "embattled farmers" at Lexington reserved their fire until first attacked, lest by too precipitate action they might weaken their position as defenders of infringed rights. Constitutionalism thus became a factor in the controversy with Great Britain. Democracy, seeking to protect its ancient privileges, summoned constitutionalism to its aid, and both became elements in the composition of the Spirit of the Age.

The influence of this spirit has never waned. Ani

mated by it, the state founded in 1776 has achieved a success never anticipated. Constitutionalism has become, not only a cult, but a recognized power. It has developed new and undreamed of capacities for usefulness. It has built up Federation into first importance, has transformed Jurisprudence, and has opened to Freedom new opportunities for beneficence. Our conception of the Spirit of the Age of 1776 can be a just and adequate one, only as it shall include the principle of Constitutionalism, which that age raised to such importance.

A NATIONAL SPIRIT.

Another distinctive element in the Spirit of the Age was developed in the hearts of the people during their great struggle, and has since been gaining in strength and persistence until it is now irrepressible. What should be the final form of the new state they were creating was apparently unsettled in the minds of many of the Fathers, in the beginning. But there is clearly traceable, from an early day, a disposition toward giving their political venture a National aspect, which grew into a strong National spirit. As planted, the colonies were separate and independent communities; but they soon began to realize that "in Union there is strength," and coalescence of neighboring settlements was frequent, for the purpose of common defense. The colonies of Connecticut, Rhode Island and New Haven were built by the union of towns. The union between Connecticut and New Haven, and that between Massachusetts and Plymouth, though compulsory at first, became by acquiescence mutually satisfactory. The New England Confederacy of 1643 had continued in existence for forty years. Union of all the colonies had been

tentatively suggested in 1696, 1701, 1722 and 1754. United action commenced with the stamp-act congress in 1765, which was composed of representatives from nine of the colonies, but spoke the sentiments of all. From this time forth, union of action was the rule; and this was the controlling spirit in resisting the stamp and tea taxes, in instituting and maintaining the work of the Committees of Correspondence, in convening the Continental Congress, and in adopting the non-importation agreement. If the Declaration of July, 1775, to the Inhabitants of Great Britain, was unduly boastful in saying, “Our union is perfect," this clearly expressed a growing feeling toward nationality. Many influential colonists were even then outspoken in favor of close and permanent union, and the number of such increased. Paine's "Common Sense," appearing early in 1776, and devoted to exploiting the idea of immediate nationality, was generally acknowledged to be a powerful advocate for independence, and a moulder of public opinion. Several colonies had previously declined to empower their delegates to join in declaring independence; while two of them had declined to consider seriously the thought of separating singly from the mother country. But after the appearance of "Common Sense," the spirit of nationality spread rapidly, and the colonies grew nearer together. Colony after colony fell into line, pronouncing in favor of a joint declaration of independence; and it was in obedience to explicit instructions from their people at home, in the case of most of the colonies, and with the known assent of the people in the other colonies, that the delegates from the thirteen put forth their one Declaration of Independence, in behalf of "one people," thereby "to assume among the Powers of the earth the separate and equal station to

which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them."

During the period of this progressive development of a National spirit, there is no exhibition of the growth of any contrary tendency. Those who expressed or reserved opinions against national action were in the minority, and remained so. The framing and adoption of the Articles of Confederation, (1777-1781), by which each state "retains its sovereignty, freedom and independence," and under which the central government had so little means of enforcing its legislation, has been argumentatively urged as refuting the theory of nationality. But this argument has been pressed too far. Defective as they were, the Articles of Confederation did not vest any of the powers or privileges of nationality in any other than the central government. They show no spirit or tendency toward subverting that government or reducing it to a grade lower than nationality. They show only a temporary jealousy of that government and a spirit of doubt as to the proper form in which it should exercise its conceded authority. Happily, this phase of doubt soon passed away, without any break in the continuity of the Nation, and with no attempt to erect a rival, or to extirpate the spirit in which the Nation had been established.

CONCLUSIONS.

If these are proper deductions to be made from the well-known facts of our history, they show "the Spirit of '76" to have been a composite one. Viewed with respect to its most conspicuous elements, it was at once conservative, progressive, democratic, constitutional and national. The American spirit of today is distinguished