NA TIONA L GR WTH A ND NA TIONA L CHA RA CTKR ] 91 



heroes of land and sea; as the tribes grew into feuds and prin- 

 cipalities and at length into kingdoms, the ties of loyal affection 

 gradually hardened into the chains of royal subjection — and 

 thenceforth the spontaneous individuality which of yore gave 

 strength to the tribesmen was confined and in part curtailed 

 by artificial class distinctions, most galling always to those of 

 strongest facult} 7 . The Declaration removed this instinct-felt 

 burden from the minds of the colonists; at the last pen-stroke 

 they became freemen, the peers of princes, ready to strive indi- 

 vidually and collectively in their own interests and the interests 

 of their loved ones; the yoke of the ruler was gone, his behest 

 was less than the passing breeze, and each man was a monarch 

 bound by no law save that of equal right to all men. The in- 

 spiration of freedom spread with the slow means of communica- 

 tion, and infused new life in the ill-fed, poorly-armed, and worse- 

 clad soldiery, and in the wives and babes and aged ones by the 

 lonely hearthstones— and thenceforth American arms were in- 

 vincible. Since the Declaration the tide of battle has sometimes 

 turned temporarily against the American ; but every fair experi- 

 ence has shown that the self-inspired freeman stands on a higher 

 plane than his king-inspired adversary, and cannot be conquered. 

 As the new factor of complete civil freedom inspired the sol- 

 dier, it found lodgment in the mind of the statesman and gave 

 new dignity to the strife for independence ; and when the struggle 

 ended the colonists combined on the boldest essay in territorial 

 expansion in the history of the world. Russia, acting as a great 

 nation inspired by belief in the divinity of kings, annexed Siberia 

 after a long process of education of statesmen and soldiers ; Eng- 

 land, actuated in like fashion, acquired India through easy stages 

 during which the minds of Briton and Hindoo were slowly con- 

 justed to the changing condition ; Spain, also under kingly con- 

 trol, captured continents through expeditions which slaughtered 

 some natives and married others, yet never undertook complete 

 conquest of an) 7 land; while George Washington and his handful 

 of cum patriots, only three million strong and scattered over three 

 hundred thousand square miles of coast-plains and adjacent 

 mountains, making no nation but only the loosest of confedera- 

 cies, with lifelong experience of the practical difficulties before 

 them, deterred by deeper appreciation of vested human rights 

 than any predecessors possessed, were not content with the title 

 to their coastwise zone alone: they looked to dim future as well 

 as hardly brilliant present, weighed the needs of their children 



