HISTORY OF VERMONT. 595 



hliiie the origin and extent of the privileges of 

 the soviereign, or. of the rights of the people. 

 Ill America every thing tended to introduce^ 

 and to complete the system of representation. 

 Made equal in their rights by nature, the body 

 of the people were in a situation nearly similar 

 tvith regarl to their employments, pursuits, and 

 views. Without the distinctions of titles, fami- 

 lies, dr nobility, they acknowledged and rever- 

 enced only those distinctions which nature had 

 made, in a diversity of talents, abilities, and vir- 

 tues. There Were no family interests, connex- 

 ions, or estates, large enowgh to oppress them. 

 There was no excessive wealth in the hands of 

 a few, sufficient to corrupt them. Britain tried 

 in vain to force upon them a government, at 

 first, derived from the decrees of her parlia- 

 ment ; afterwards, from conquest. Nothing 

 remained for such a people, but to follow what 

 nature taught ; and as they were too numerotis 

 to attempt to carry on their governments in th"e 

 form of the ancient democracies, they naturally 

 adopted the system of representation : Every 

 where choosing representatives, and assigning 

 to them such powers as their circumstances re- 

 quired. This was evidently the system of gov- 

 ernment, that nature pohited out : And it is a 

 system that has no where been suffered to pre- 

 vail but in America, and what the people were 

 naturally led lo by the situation in which provi- 

 dence had placed them. The system of gov- 

 ernment then in America, is not derived froni 

 superstition, conquest, military power, or a^pre;* 

 tended compact between the rulers and the peo/ 

 pic ; but it u'as derived from nature and reason ; 

 VOL. II AS 



