At this point, it is well to digress for a moment in order that we may well understand that in none of these thirteen nations did its citizens vest in its government an unlimited ability to interfere with individual freedom. All the citizens of those respective nations were then battling with a mighty Government which claimed such unlimited ability over all of them, as subjects, and they were battling to establish forever in America the basic doctrine that no government of free men could ever have unlimited ability of that kind. In each of the thirteen nations, its citizens vested its government with ability of that kind only to a limited extent. They did this in strict conformity to republican principles.
For the many who do not know, it is well to state clearly the distinction between a pure democracy and a republic. In both, the human beings constitute the nation or the state and are its citizens. In both, the citizens themselves limit the matters and the extent in which they shall be governed at all in restraint of their individual freedom. In both, therefore, it is accurate and truthful to state that the people govern themselves. The actual difference lies in one fact. In a democracy the people themselves assemble and themselves enact each specific rule of conduct or law interfering with individual freedom. In a republic, it is always possible that the citizens may assemble, as in a pure democracy, and enact any specific rule of conduct or law. But, in a republic, its citizens generally prefer to act, in such matters, through attorneys in fact or representatives, chosen by themselves for the special purpose of exercising a wise discretion in making such laws. In a true republic, however, where the citizens are to remain free men, they secure to themselves absolute control of their representative lawmakers through two most effective means. In the first place, they ordain that their attorneys in fact for the purpose of law-making, generally called their legislators, shall be selected by themselves from time to time, at comparatively short intervals. This precaution enables the people, through new attorneys in fact, quickly to repeal a law of which they do not approve. In the second place, the people, in constituting their government, limit the law-making ability of these temporary attorneys in fact or legislators. This is the most important fact in a free republic. Later herein there will be explained the marvelous and effective manner in which this particular security for human freedom was later achieved by the citizens of the Republic which we know as America, when they constituted their government. At present, there is to be mentioned the general method which the citizens of each of those thirteen nations, in 1776, employed to achieve this particular security.
In each nation the citizens constituted a legislature to be their only attorney in fact for the purpose of making valid laws. In this legislative department they did not vest enumerated powers to interfere with individual freedom. But in it they did vest whatever ability of that kind, under the American doctrine of human liberty, they thought a government of free men or citizens ought to have. They did not, however, grant unlimited ability to make laws interfering with individual freedom. When constituting their government they named many matters in which no laws could be made, such as laws abridging the right of free speech, laws suspending the privilege of habeas corpus, etc. Outside these named matters, they granted law-making ability of that kind to whatever extent American principles of human liberty determined a government ought to have. The extent of that ability, so to be determined, they left to the legislature to ascertain in the first instance. But to the judicial department they gave the right finally to ascertain and decide whether, in any particular law, the legislative department had exceeded its granted ability.
In living again the education days of the Americans, who later created and constituted the republican nation which is America, we have come now to the close of the eventful year 1776. We find ourselves, at that time, viewing this status of the American human being and his relation to all governments.
With his fellow Americans, he has declared that they are not the subjects of any government or governments in the world. With his fellow Americans, on many battlefields, he is fighting their former Government, which still claims that they are its subjects. If he is a Virginian, he and his fellow Virginians, with the consent of their fellow Americans, have constituted themselves a free and independent nation of human beings and have given to their law-making attorney in fact, the legislature of Virginia, some ability to make laws in restraint of the individual freedom of Virginians, in such matter and to such extent, as the citizens of Virginia have deemed wise. In each of the other twelve nations the situation is the same. In no nation, in America, has any government servant and attorney in fact of the people any ability whatever to interfere with human freedom in any matter or to any extent, except such ability of that kind as has been given to that government by direct grant from its citizens. Nowhere, in America, has any government any power whatever, in any matter or to any extent, to make a valid command restraining the human freedom of the individual American as an American. All Americans are fighting throughout America with the armies of the only government in the world which claims such ability. All Americans everywhere are determined to win that war and keep it the basic law of America that no government ever shall have ability of that kind unless the whole American people, by direct grant from themselves, shall give it to a general American government. There is yet no republic of America. There are yet no citizens of America. There are only citizens of thirteen respective nations, which nations are allied in an existing war. The affairs of the allied nations are being directed by a committee of delegates from the different nations, called the Congress. The first Committee or Congress of that kind, known in history as the First Continental Congress, had met at Philadelphia from September 5 to October 26, 1774, and “recommended peaceful concerted action against British taxation and coercion.” The second Committee, known as the Second Continental Congress, had assembled, also at Philadelphia, on May 10, 1775, and had assumed direction of the war.
CHAPTER II
THE STATE GOVERNMENTS FORM A UNION OF STATES
We have now lived with the American of an earlier generation through the days in which he ceased to be a subject of any government, and in which he established forever in America the basic law that no government can exercise or possess any ability to interfere with his individual freedom except by direct grant from its citizens. We have seen him, in each of the former colonies, create a nation, become one of its citizens and, with his fellow citizens of that nation, give to its government some ability of that kind.
When we recall it to be the tribute of history that these Americans were better acquainted with the science of government than any other people in the world, it is well to reflect for a moment upon the significant exhibition of that knowledge during the days through which we have just lived with them.
When the suggestion came from Philadelphia, in the summer of 1776, that the Americans in each former colony constitute a government for their own nation and give to it a limited ability to govern themselves in restraint of their individual freedom, it is recorded history that Americans generally knew that a gift of that kind to government could never be validly made by governments. It “was felt and acknowledged by all” that only its own citizens ever could grant ability of that kind to any government.
As the people of New England had been the most thoroughly trained in the actual experience of self government, we naturally find them acting upon and clearly stating the American legal principle that legislatures never can give ability of that kind to government. The records of Concord, Massachusetts, for October 21, 1776, show how clearly this was understood by the Americans of that generation. After the Philadelphia suggestion had been made, the Massachusetts legislature framed a constitution and sent it to the Massachusetts townships for approval. On that October 21, 1776, the people of Concord refused to act upon it. Their reason was that government ability to interfere with human freedom could never come from legislatures but must always come directly from the citizens themselves. Let the Americans of Concord, in their own words, impart some of their knowledge to the Americans of this generation.