“Thirteen governments, thus founded on _the natural authority of the people alone_, without a pretence of miracle or mystery, and which are destined to spread over the northern part of that whole quarter of the globe, are a great point gained in favor of _the rights of mankind_.”[149]
Here is a plain assertion that our Thirteen States were founded “on the natural authority of the people alone,” and that they were destined to spread over all North America.
Charles Pinckney, in a speech on the adoption of the Constitution, speaks for South Carolina:--
“The doctrine of representation is the fundamental of a republic.… As to the United Netherlands, it is such a confusion of states and assemblies, that I have always been at loss what species of government to term it. According to my idea of the word, it is not a republic; for I conceive it as indispensable in a republic that all authority should flow from the people.… A republic is _where the people at large_, either collectively or by representation, form the Legislature.”[150]
Luther Martin, an able representative of Maryland in the Convention, while vindicating a prohibition or tax on the importation of slaves, said:--
“The privilege of importing them was unreasonable; and it was inconsistent with the principles of the Revolution, and dishonorable to the American character, to have such a feature in the Constitution.”[151]
Afterwards, in his address to the Legislature of Maryland, he announced that both in the Committee and in the Convention he was influenced by the argument,--
“that Slavery is inconsistent with _the genius of republicanism_, and has a tendency to destroy those principles on which it is supported, _as it lessens the sense of the Equal Rights of mankind_, and habituates us to tyranny and oppression.”[152]
Thus was a “sense of the Equal Rights of mankind” one of the principles on which Republicanism rested.
And here is one more word from Virginia: it is Colonel Mason, who always spoke with so much point:--
“The true idea, in his opinion, was, that _every man_, having evidence of attachment to and permanent common interest with the society, ought to share in all its rights and privileges.”[153]
Again we have a plain recognition of the Revolutionary idea.