Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1876-07-21

In its glowing sentences the whole
spirit of the times was summed up,
condensed, and written down as with
a pen of iron. 1t is proper, says the
writer, that His Majesty George III.
should be informed of the "Cnwar-
rantable encroachments and usurpa.
tions" of Parliament, without an en-
ployment of "those expressions of
servility which would persuade His
Majesty that we are asking favors
and not rights" He is "no more
than the chief officer of the people,
appointed by the laws, and clrcum-
scribed with definite powers to assist
in working the great machine of gov
ernment erected for their use, and
consequently subject to their superin-
tendence." But the people of Vir-
ginia were the descendants Of men
who possessed the right which ma
ture had given to all men, of depart
ing from the country in which chance
and not choice placed them, of going
In quest of new societies" The Sax
ons had come from the North and
conquered England. Had their moth
er country claimed dominion over
them still they would have had too
firm feeling of right "to bow down
the sovereignty of their State before
such visionary pretensions." Ameri-
ca was in the same condition. Her
settlements were made Sat the ex-
pense of individuals, and not of the
British public" The settlers expend-
ed their own blood and fortunes
For themselves they fought, for them
selves they conquered, and for them
selves alone they have the right to
hold. The writer then passes on to
consideration OF the wrongs infiict-
ed upon the colonies. These wrongs,
he declares, commenced before the
great English Revolution. ga fami-
ly of princes was then on the British
throne whose reasonable crimes
against their people brought on them
afterward the exertion of those sacred
and sovereign rights Of punishment
reserved In the hands of the people
for cases of extreme necessity, and
judged by the Constitution unsafe to
be delegated to any other judicature."
These princes had very unjustly por-
toned out the territory of Ameri-
ca to their tavorites, and saddled the
country with every species of onerous
legislation. Parliament was the in
strument of tyranny; aud "the true
ground on which we declare these
acts void is that the English Parlia-
ment has no right to exercise author
ity over U.S." The Postoffice Act
"seems to have had little connection
with British convenience, except that
of accommodating His Majesty's min
listers and favorites with the sale of
an easy and lucrative Office" and the
act suspending the Legislature of
New \ 1ork is "a phenomenon un-
known in nature-that of one body
directing another as free and indie
pendent as itself" "Can any one
reason be assigned" he demanded,
"why 100000 electors in the island
of Great Britain should give law to
100000 IN the States of America,
every individual of whom is equal to
every individual of them in virtue, in
understanding and in bodily strength?
Were this to be admitted, instead of
being free people, as we have hlth-
erto supposed, and mean to continue
ourselves, we should suddenly be
found the slaves, not of one, but of
one hundred and sixty thousand ty-
rants" The Boston people had been
"bold in their enmities against the
house Of Stuart" and were conse-
quently "now devoted to ruin by that
unseen hand which governs the mo-
mentous affairs of this great empire"
The town is to be reduced to beggary
by ga few worthless ministerial de-
pendants" who, "by their treach-
cries, hope to obtain the dignity of
English knighthood. . If the pulse
of his people shall beat calmly under
this experiment, another and another
will be tried, till the measure Of des-
potism be filled up. The towards
who would suffer countryman to be
torn from the bowels of their society
in order to be thus offered sacrifice
to Parliamentary tyranny, would mer-
it that everlasting intamy now fixed
on the authors of the act" Against
all these acts of oppression eve do,
in behalf of the inhabitants of Brit
ish America, enter this, our solemn
and determined protest. with that
freedom of language and sentiment
which becomes a free people, claim
ing their rights as derived from the
laws of nature, and not as the gift of
their chief magistrate. Let those fat
ter who fear; it is not an American
art. q. They know, and will therefore
say, that kings are the servants, not
the proprietors, of the people.
This, sire, is the advice of your great
American Council, on the observance
of which may perhaps depend your
felicity and future fame, and the pres
ervation of that harmony which alone
can continue, both to Great Britain
and America, the reciprocal advant-
ages of their connection. The God
who gave us life gave us liberty at
the same time; the hand of force
may destroy, but cannot disjoint
them. This, sire, is our last, our de-
termipcd, resolution"
Thus did the young member of
the Virginia Burgesses announce the
great principles which lie at the
foundation Of free government. The
Declaration of Independence was only
the fuller and more solemn enuncia.
ton of the same fundamental idea.
In passing from the youth and
early manhood of Jefferson we leave
behind the romance of his life
henceforth he is the politician, the
leveler, the free-thinker, "apostle of
democracy" and President. But he
no doubt looked back often on the
bright days when he was 4 student
and squire Of danes at Williams
burg. In that famous old Apollo
Room of the Raleigh Tavern, when
he "danced with Belinda" once and
was "happy," he sat down with his
great contemporaries making history.
1t is fanciful to believe that the