promote the happiness of all, and the good of every man in all his rights, his life, liberty, estate, honor, etc., without injury or abuse done to any." No other form of government is so likely to preserve the peculiar good of the whole and of every individual member as a democracy.1

Such are the political doctrines of this remarkable treatise which was used by the colonists as a kind of political text-book. It is a proof of the democratic sentiments generated by the theory of Natural Law. It shows likewise that these liberal doctrines were particularly congenial to Congregationalists. Not only to them, but to the colonists in general, did the theories of Natural Law possess great fascination, because their conditions seemed to support the truth of them. The contract theory appeared to fit the circumstances exactly. A number of persons set out to found a colony. They seem to be in a state of nature, under no government whatever, until they assemble, draw up a compact, and organize a government. At first a pure democracy prevails, all having a hand in governing. Representation becomes necessary as the colony increases in size. The colonists chose certain of their number to act for the whole body. Sovereignty is, as it were, conferred by the people upon the magistrates. If any one wishes to withdraw from the jurisdiction of the State, he needs but to cross the borders of the colony and strike out into the forests to find himself in the state of nature.

To take Plymouth as an example. Here the entire body of the freemen who were church-members at first exercised legislative power. A democratic theocracy existed. There was no delegation of power. The num1 Vindication, p. 40.

ber of colonists having increased, the participation of all in regulating public affairs became impracticable. Representation was accordingly established in 1639. The deputies of the people and all officers of the colony were chosen annually.1 Providence also was originally a pure democracy. The settlers met monthly in town meetings. Here, as in Massachusetts, representation was established.2

As we have seen, many factors worked together to generate a democratic spirit in the colonists. They were really republicans before they declared themselves to be so. To them the principle that all power is derived from the people was more than a mere theory. Because the political principles of the American Revolution had been embodied in their institutions their influence was intensified. The ideas of Milton, Sidney, Hooker, and Locke were familiar to them as Englishmen; but they had among themselves since the beginning of their history ardent champions of democratic views, viz.: Hooker, Roger Williams, Penn, and others.

In the American colonies the conditions existed which engendered democratic views and enabled the liberal political doctrines of the time to bear fruit. The Puritan principles of government, as we find them expressed in the works of Milton, Sidney, Locke, and others, of little actual influence upon the constitution of the mother country, were destined here to give birth to a form of government which is the admiration and hope of the world. Nowhere did there exist a people so devoted to their liberty, so independent in spirit, so

1 Hutchinson, History of Mass., II. p. 463; Hazen Coll., I. 404, 408, 411, 412, 414.

* Rhode Island Col. Rec., I. pp. 14, 42; Arnold, Hist. of Rhode Island, I. pp. 102, 103.

free from the bondage of custom and tradition, as these American colonists. To no other people did the notion that all men are created free and equal seem so true as to them, and nowhere else did freedom and equality exist to the same extent. Inhabiting a new land, separated from the motherland by a wide and treacherous ocean, with new problems pressing for solution which could not be settled by precedent, what was more natural than that they should break away from traditions and apply reason to their affairs? The Law of Nature, being the Law of Reason, must have attracted them greatly. In struggling for liberty of conscience they had grown accustomed to look beyond the positive laws of the State and appeal to what they believed to be their Natural Right.'

1

The character of the colonists, their surroundings and form of life, their free political institutions, their democratic form of church government, as well as their past history, bred in them a spirit of individualism. The theory of the sovereignty of the people lay at the basis of their institutions-the doctrine which, as a ray of white light contains the various prismatic colors, embraces in itself all the so-called Rights of Man. Before individual rights could become secure, the last traces of feudalism had to be destroyed and the doctrine of the divine right of kings supplanted by the conception that the sovereignty resides in the people.

It must not be forgotten that many of the colonists were men of excellent education, who compare favor

1 See Jellinek, Die Erklaerung der Menschen- und Buergerrechte, translated by Prof. Max Farrand. It seems to me that this otherwise very valuable and suggestive little treatise, in trying to account for the democratic views of the colonists, overemphasizes the importance of the struggle for religious toleration and oversees the greater influence of Natural Law.

ably with the most accomplished men of the motherland. Much care was bestowed upon the establishment of good schools. The sons of well-to-do families not infrequently went abroad to finish their education. The desire for culture was general. There was a large demand for books. Next to religious books, treatises on legal and political subjects were most eagerly read. To quote the words of Edmund Burke: "In no country, perhaps, in the world is the law so general a study. The profession itself is numerous and powerful, and in most provinces it takes the lead. The greater number of deputies sent to the Congress were lawyers. But all who read, and most do read, endeavor to obtain some smattering in that science. I have been told by an eminent bookseller, that in no branch of his business, after tracts of popular devotion, were so many books as those on the law exported to the plantations. The colonists have now fallen into the way of printing them for their own use. I hear that they have sold nearly as many of Blackstone's 'Commentaries' in America as in England." It was especially works on Natural Law which were carefully studied, the favorite writers being Grotius, Pufendorf, Locke, Vattel, and others. The fruits of this study showed themselves in the wonderful skill with which the colonists stated and defended their rights during the struggle with the motherland. With this conflict, and especially the documents to which it gave birth, we must now concern ourselves.

1 Burke's Works, II. 124, 125. See also Schlosser, Geschichte des 18. Jahrhunderts, 3d. ed., III. 438 sq.

CHAPTER IX

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION AND THE BILLS OF RIGHTS

WHILE resisting the aggressions of the motherland the colonists at first appealed to the common law of England and their rights as English subjects. They would not be treated as subject-colonies and dependencies, but claimed the same rights and immunities their brethren in England enjoyed. These rights and liberties they declared to be their birthright as Englishmen. Not finding their grievances redressed they sought for another standard to which to appeal. Being denied their rights as English subjects they appealed to their rights as men. What they could not obtain by the laws of the land they now demanded according to Natural Right and the Law of Nature.

Massachusetts began the Revolution. She, also, first of all the colonies, appealed to Natural Right. Three persons, James Otis, John Adams, and Samuel Adams were instrumental in bringing this about. The writers on Natural Law which they quote are Hooker, Locke, Harrington, Grotius, Pufendorf, Vattel, and Burlamaqui. Of James Otis, John Adams writes: "This classic scholar was also a great master of the Law of Nature and Nations. He had read Pufendorf, Grotius, Barbeyrac, Burlamaqui, Vattel, Heineccius. It was a maxim which he inculcated in his pupils . that a lawyer ought never to be without a volume of