ies again to the magnitude of the
event, as follows:--

"My old Friend,--I write this to congratulate you on the establishment
of your country as a free and sovereign power, taking its equal station
amongst the powers of the world. I congratulate you, in particular, as
chosen by Providence to be a principal instrument in this great
Revolution,--_a Revolution that has stranger marks of Divine
interposition, superseding the ordinary course of human affairs, than
any other event which this world has experienced_."

He closes this letter by saying that he thought of making a tour of
America, adding that, "if there ever was an object worth travelling to
see, and worthy of the contemplation of a philosopher, it is that in
which he may see the beginning of a great empire at its foundation."[61]
He communicated this purpose also to John Adams, who answered him, that
"he would be received respectfully in every part of America,--that he
had always been considered friendly to America,--and that his writings
had been useful to our cause."[62]

Then came another work, first published in 1783, entitled, "A Memorial
addressed to the Sovereigns of America, by Governor Pownall," of which
he gave the mistaken judgment to a private friend, that it was "the best
thing he ever wrote." Here for the first time American citizens are
called "sovereigns." At the beginning he explains and indicates the
simplicity with which he addresses them:--

"Having presumed to address to the Sovereigns of Europe a Memorial ...
permit me now to address this Memorial to you, Sovereigns of America. I
shall not address you with the court titles of Gothic Europe, nor with
those of servile Asia. I will neither address your Sublimity or Majesty,
your Grace or Holiness, your Eminence or High-mightiness, your
Excellence or Honors. What are titles, where things themselves are known
and understood? What title did the Republic of Rome take? The state was
known to be sovereign and the citizens to be free. What could add to
this? Therefore, United States and Citizens of America, I address you as
you are."[63]

Here again are the same constant sympathy with liberty, the same
confidence in our national destinies, and the same aspirations for our
prosperity, mingled with warnings against disturbing influences. He
exhorts that all our foundations should be "laid in nature"; that there
should be "no contention for, nor acquisition of, unequal domination in
men"; and that