And here is one more word from Virginia: it is Colonel Mason, who always spoke with so much point:—
“The true idea, in his opinion, was, that every man, having evidence of attachment to and permanent common interest with the society, ought to share in all its rights and privileges.”[153]
Again we have a plain recognition of the Revolutionary idea.
Here, also, is another authority. I quote a Virginia writer on Government,—John Taylor, of Caroline:—
“The end of the guaranty is ‘a republican form of government.’ The meaning of this expression is not so unsettled here as in other countries, because we agree in one descriptive character as essential to the existence of a republican form of government. This is representation. We do not admit a government to be even in its origin republican, unless it is instituted by representation; nor do we allow it to be so, unless its legislation is also founded upon representation.”[154]
I close this array, illustrative of opinion, with the words of Daniel Webster, in harmony with the rest:—
“Now, fellow-citizens, I will venture to state, in a few words, what I take these American political principles in substance to be. They consist, as I think, in the first place, in the establishment of popular governments on the basis of representation.… This representation is to be made as equal as circumstances will allow.”[155]
Then again, on another occasion, he said:—