The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1915-06-22
What It Takes To Make a State
Great

Continued from Page Ten).
that is you adopted manhood suffrage
which hitherto was unknown. It is
true that after the large influx Of the
caValler lemen you substituted for
manhood suffrage the restricted free
hold suffrage. The rebellion led by
Bacon in 1876 brought about among
other things a restoration of man
hood suffrage. Later, however, the
propertied classes were able to again
repeal it n you had freehold suf-
frage until long after the American
revolution whe nthe Irresistible tide of
! popular sovereignty again restored
manhood suffrage. But it speaks
loudly for the independence and the
intelligence of you people that in the
early stages Of your commonwealth
you should have adopted a written
constitution and suffrage.
Those ideas permeated your popula-
ton, and those principles of indie
pendence and of popular rights were
not suppressed but were ~ineubatlns to
find an utterance through George
Mason, Patrick Henry, and Thomas
Jefferson. In 1774 Thomas Jefferson
in his remarkable pamphlet on the
Survey of the Rights of British
America" asserted the Identical SEN
timents in almost the identical Ian
guage which he afterwards used in
the Declaration of American nde
%pendence at Philadelphia in 177e.
The language used by him in this
Survey in 1774 was not original with
him, but was taken almost verbatim
from the writings md u@tterances OF
George Mason.
The American Declaration of indie
pendence is the most remarkable and
most advanced assertion of human
rights hat the world has seen. In it's
essence it's principles had been assert.
ed by Jefferson and derived from Ma
son as already stated, but these views
could not have been successfully as.
serted by those men if they had ne
already been h common property @
the people of Virginia. They hat
been discussed on many occasions il
the Legislature, in the hustings, in tn
press and had met with the cordia
l concurrence and approval of the vas
body of the people Of Virginia. Th'
! Virginia Bill of Rights drawn b.
George Mason laid down the funda
mental principles which Jefferson pu
forth to an aStoniShed world in 1776
at Philadelphia. Those principles
e however, were familiar to all Virgin
ians. AS Bishop Mead says "Fe
= $50 years Virginia had been fghtin;
e the contest for American liberty.
The same is true as to North Care
f lima and Massachusetts, and tn
other Colinies. The Revolution wa
not a sudden outbreak but the arme
f assertion, after great deliberation an
d counsel, of principles, of liberty, c
personal rights and Of the equality G
men for which the people of the cole
e MES la long been preparing. N
colony however was more thorough
- x-.Ah 900 nio 10c fhn~ VIZ
a ginia, and if it had not been thor
r oughly in accord with the most &C
vanced thought Of the people in tn
% other Colonies it could not have take
. the leadership.
Ic The Dividing Line.
May I say here hat the Declare
= ton Of American Independence rea
ic ly marks the dividing line betwee
IL all that went before it and all whie
a has come or shall come hereafter
\. government. There is no greater mi:
e take of fact than the current assel
n, ton which was made without ga
re cient Investigation that we wv o,
t. liberties in any part to Magma Cart
s. Modern research has shown that tt
compact at R%unnynede between Xii
a John on the one side and a fe
g Bishops and Barons on the othe
Or a not in any sense a Declaratit
es in favor Of the rights of the peopl
IT was an aristocfatic reaction again
10 them. The direct object Of the baro1
#, was q repeal of the reforms viii
Ehad been instituted by Henry r. Fl
I'd expression in Magma Carta that
e, freeman-nullus iber homo-Fefe
he red not to freeman in cur sense
81 the word but solely to those whe h:
i'll the privileges Of knighthood. A lar
portion Of the people were serfs, al
tilt those who were net If below the d
ad Rrees o4 kniRhthAod we're Of no CO