468 NATURAL AND CIVIL 



services lo their country and to mankind, than 

 those who amused all Europe with an astronomi- 

 cal observation, a physical eixperiment, solved A 

 new problem, or wrote an elegant poem, or a 

 celtbnited volume of history or philosophy. .^ 

 The political effects of the wars were also 

 greatly dangerous, and injurious to the colonies ; 

 they kept them in an almost absolute dependence 

 on the European powers and monarchs. It was 

 not with an expectation of deriving any assist- 

 ance from their European sovereigns, that the 

 first settlers came into the eastern parts of Ameri- 

 ca ; it was to get rid of their ecclesiastical au- 

 thority and intolerance, that they left their na- 

 tive country. When they arrived here, it was 

 in consequence of a patent from James the first ; 

 and they understood their charter as a sacred 

 compact, describing the grants that were, made 

 to them by their sovereign, and the nature of 

 the allegiance that they were to bear to him. 

 Their ideas of ciiil subjection were that birth 

 was not a necessary or an unalienable cause of 

 submission, to any civil government ; but that 

 "when they left their native country, all the obli- 

 gation they were under to the king of England, 

 arose from voluntary compact ; from their own 

 agreement and act in accepting their patent, and 

 s^by that entering into a voluntary contract of 

 submission and obedience to the king of Eng- 

 land. They had no doubt but that the country 

 to which they came, in respect to its soil, do- 

 minion, lordship and sovereignty, belonged to 

 tlie Indians, and not at all to the European mon- 

 archs ; and that when they had fairly purchased 

 these of the rightful owners, they had a right to 



