OF AMERICA, in GENERAL CONGRESS assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by the authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare, 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 connexion between them and the state of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved; and that, as FREE and INDEPENDENT STATES, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which INDEPENDENT STATES may of right do. And, for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of DIVINE PROVIDENCE, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor." This immortal state paper was "the genuine effusion of the soul of the country at that time," the revelation of its mind, when, in its youth, its enthusiasm, its sublime confronting of danger, it rose to the highest creative powers of which man is capable. The bill of rights which it promulgates is of rights that are older than human institutions, and spring from the eternal justice. Two political theories divided the world: one founded the commonwealth on the advantage of the state, the policy of expediency, the other on the immutable principles of morals; the new republic, as it took its place among the powers of the world, proclaimed its faith in the truth and reality and unchangeableness of freedom, virtue, and right. The heart of Jefferson in writing the declaration, and of congress in adopting it, beat for all humanity; the assertion of right was made for the entire world of mankind and all coming generations, without any exception whatever; for the proposition which admits of exceptions can never be self-evident. As it was put forth in the name of the ascendent people of that time, it was sure to make the circuit of the world, passing everywhere through the despotic countries of Europe; and the astonished nations, as they read that all men are created equal, started out of their lethargy, like those who have been exiles from childhood, when they suddenly hear the dimly remembered accents of their mother tongue. In the next place, the declaration, avoiding specious and vague generalities, grounds itself with anxious care upon the past, and reconciles right and fact. Of universal principles enough is repeated to prove that America chose for her own. that system of politics which recognises the rule of eternal justice; and independence is vindicated by the application of that rule to the grievous instructions, laws, and acts, proceeding from the king, in the exercise of his prerogative, or in concurrence with the lords and commons of Great Britain. The colonies professed to drive back innovations, and not, with roving zeal, to overturn all traditional inequalities; they were no rebels against the past, of which they knew the present to be the child; with all the glad anticipations of greatness that broke forth from the prophetic soul of the youthful nation, they took their point of departure from the world as it was. They did not declare against monarchy itself; they sought no general overthrow of all kings, no universal system of republics; nor did they cherish in their hearts a lurking hatred against princes. Till within a few years or months, loyalty to the house of Hanover had been to them another name for the love of civil and religious liberty; the British constitution, the best system that had ever been devised for the security of liberty and property by a representative government. Neither Franklin, nor Washington, nor John Adams, nor Jefferson, nor Jay, had ever expressed a preference for a republic. The voices that rose for independence spoke also for alliances with kings. The sovereignty of George III. was renounced, not because he was a king, but because he was deemed to be "a tyrant." The insurgents, as they took up self-government, manifested no impatience at the recollection of having been ruled by a royal line, no eagerness to blot out memorials of their former state; they sent forth no Hugh Peter to recommend to the mother country the abolition of monarchy, which no one seems to have proposed or to have wished; in the moment of revolution in America, they did not counsel the English to undertake a revolution. The republic was to America a godsend; it came, though unsought, because society contained the elements of no other organization. Here, and in that century here only, was a people which, by its education and large and long experience, was prepared to act as the depositary and carrier of all political power. America developed her choice from within herself; and therefore it is that, conscious of following an inner law, she never made herself a propagandist of her system, where the conditions of success were wanting. Finally, the declaration was not only the announcement of the birth of a people, but the establishment of a national government; a most imperfect one, it is true, but still a government, in conformity with the limited constituent powers which each colony had conferred upon its delegates in congress. The war was no longer a civil war; Britain was become to the United States a foreign country. Every former subject of the British king in the thirteen colonies now owed primary allegiance to the dynasty of the people, and became a citizen of the new republic; except in this, everything remained as before; every man retained his rights; the colonies did not dissolve into a state of nature, nor did the new people undertake a social revolution. The management of the internal police and government was carefully reserved to the separate states, which could, each for itself, enter upon the career of domestic reforms. But the states which were henceforth independent of Britain were not independent of one another: the United States of America, presenting themselves to mankind as one people, assumed powers over war, peace, foreign alliances, and commerce. The declaration was not signed by the members of congress on the day on which it was agreed to, but it was duly authenticated by the president and secretary, and published to the world. The nation, when it made the choice of its great anniversary, selected not the day of the resolution of independence when it closed the past, but that of the declaration of the principles on which it opened its new career. END OF VOLUME IV. D. APPLETON & CO.'S PUBLICATIONS. MILITARY HISTORY OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. From April, 1861, to April, 1865. By General ADAM BADEAU, Aide-de-Camp to the General-in-Chief. Complete in three octavo volumes, containing over 2,000 pages, illustrated with a Steel Portrait and thirty-three Maps. Cloth, $12.00; sheep, $15.00; half morocco, $20.00. Sold by subscription only. RISE AND FALL OF THE CONFEDERATE GOVERNMENT. By JEFFERSON DAVIS. Complete in two volumes, 8vo. Illustrated with Portraits of Mr. Davis, his Cabinet, Aides, and Generals, and with Maps and Plans. Price, per volume, in cloth, $5.00; sheep, $6.00; half turkey, $7.00; full turkey, $10.00. Sold by subscription only. Every impartial reader must recognize the ability with which it is composed, the sincerity with which his opinions are held, and the good faith with which they are set forth, and the value which it possesses as the authentic commentary on the most momentous episode in the history of the United States since their independence was acknowledged and their Constitution was framed."-London Athenæum. ANECDOTAL HISTORY OF THE BRITISH PARLIAMENT. From the Earliest Periods to the Present Time, with Notices of Eminent Parliamentary Men and Examples of their Oratory. Compiled by G. H. JENNINGS. 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APPLETON & CO., 1, 3, & 5 Bond Street. D. APPLETON & CO.'S PUBLICATIONS. HISTORY OF THE FORMATION OF THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. By GEORGE BANCROFT. Uniform with, and a continuation of, the author's "History of the United States." In 2 vols., 8vo, cloth, $2.50 each. "The American Constitution is the most wonderful work ever struck off at a given time by the brain and purpose of man."-W. E. GLADSTONE. "Mr. George Bancroft, in his eighty-second year-an age which few men reach, and at which few of those who do reach it retain the disposition or the capacity for protracted literary labor-sends out to the world a work which, in its clearness and strength of diction, its breadth of scope, its wealth of fresh material, and its philosophic grasp of events and their causes, would have reflected honor upon his prime. His 'History of the Formation of the Constitution of the United States of America' may be viewed either as a continuation of his previous History of the United States,' or as an independent work; and, viewed in either aspect, it is a contribution to our literature of singular value and importance."-Boston Journal. "It is nearly a half-century since George Bancroft published the first volume of the work by which his reputation has chiefly been made, and on which alone it will rest in aftertime. He now gives to the world two additional volumes of his colossal undertaking, for, although possessing another title, they, in truth, are but a part of the work begun so long ago."-New York Times. THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. By W. E. H. LECKY, author of "History of the Rise and Influence of the Spirit of Rationalism in Europe," etc. Volumes III and IV, extending from the accession of George III to 1784, the opening year of Pitt's first ministry, and covering the period of the American Revolution. Published by arrangement with the author. Large 12mo. Uniform with Vols. I and II, of which new editions are now ready. The 4 vols., cloth, $2.25 each. "This section of the work covers the first twenty-two years of the reign of George III, a period which, in its bearing on constitutional, political, and social problems, was the most pregnant in the modern history of Great Britain. It was during these momentous years that the relation of the Crown to a Ministry representing the House of Commons was definitely fixed, that the necessity of parliamentary reform and the expediency of abolishing Catholic disabilities were distinctly recognized, and that the influence of the newspaper press acquired unprecedented weight among political agencies, and called for new guarantees of freedom by changes in the law of libel. This was the period of Burke's most po tent and exemplary activity, of the Middlesex election in which Wilkes played a part analogous to that taken by Bradlaugh in our own day, of the ministries of Bute, Grenville, Rockingham, Chatham, Shelburne, and the younger Pitt. "At home and abroad this quarter of a century was memorable for conquests and revolutions. The affairs of the East India Company were administered by Clive, and the vast accessions of territory in Bengal were supplemented by those resulting from the war with Hyder Ali. In America the discontent of the thirteen colonies had ripened into open revolt, and all the phases of the contest are exhibited in these volumes, up to the last year of exhaustion and inaction which preceded the final peace. Simultaneous with this movement on the other side of the Atlantic was the growth of political discontent in Ireland, which culminated in the demand for legislative independence. All of these topics are carefully discussed by Mr. Lecky, and the spirit which he evinces is so candid and impar tial that his conclusions will be listened to with attention and respect, even where they run counter to the reader's individual opinions and predilections."-New York Sun. New York: D. APPLETON & CO., 1, 3, & 5 Bond Street. |