In 1776, though the Middle Ages had passed, their traditions still
prevailed in Europe, and probably the antagonism between this survival of
a dead civilization and the modern democracy of America was too deep for
any arbitrament save trial by battle. Identically the same dispute had
arisen in England the century before, when the commons rebelled against
the prerogatives of the crown, and Cromwell fought like Washington, in the
cause of individual emancipation; but the movement in Great Britain was
too radical for the age, and was followed by a reaction whose force was
not spent when George III. came to the throne.
Precedent is only inflexible among stationary races, and advancing nations
glory in their capacity for change; hence it is precisely those who have
led revolt successfully who have won the brightest fame. If, therefore, it
be admitted that they should rank among mankind's noblest benefactors, who
have risked their lives to win the freedom we enjoy, and which seems
destined to endure, there are few to whom posterity owes a deeper debt
than to our early statesmen; nor, judging their handiwork by the test of
time, have many lived who in genius have surpassed them. In the fourth
article of their Declaration of Rights, the Continental Congress resolved
that the colonists "are entitled to a free and exclusive power of
legislation in their several provincial legislatures, .
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