And yet, in regenerating its institutions,
it was not guided by any speculative theory or laborious application of
metaphysical distinctions. Its form of government grew naturally out of
its traditions, by the simple rejection of all personal hereditary
authority, which in America had never had much more than a
representative existence. Its people were industrious and frugal.
Accustomed to the cry of liberty and property, they harbored no dream of
a community of goods; and their love of equality never degenerated into
envy of the rich. No successors of the fifth-monarchy men proposed to
substitute an unwritten higher law, interpreted by individual
conscience, for the law of the land and the decrees of human tribunals.
The people proceeded with self-possession and moderation, after the
manner of their ancestors. Their large inheritance of English liberties
saved them from the necessity and from the wish to uproot their old
political institutions; and as happily the scaffold was not wet with the
blood of their statesmen, there was no root of a desperate hatred of
England, such as the Netherlands kept up for centuries against Spain.
The wrongs inflicted or attempted by the British king were felt to have
been avenged by independence.
Pages:
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341