that
some are created equal and some unequal. The alleged superior was
sometimes a private citizen, sometimes a noble, sometimes a monarch,
sometimes a government, sometimes a state, sometimes a nation. The
inferior was said to be "dependent" upon the superior--that is,
related to him directly and without any connecting justiciary medium,
so that the will of the superior controlled the will and action of the
inferior. It was this alleged law of nature and of nations, based on
an alleged divine or self-evident right of inequality--an inequality
arising from creation--which was the basis of the British Declaratory
Act of 1766, which may perhaps be called "The Declaration of
Dependence." In that Act, the State of Great Britain declared, (basing
itself evidently upon the law of nature and of nations, since there
was no treaty,) that the American Colonies "have been, are, and of
right ought to be, subordinate unto and dependent upon the Imperial
Crown and Parliament of Great Britain," and that the Parliament of
Great Britain "had, hath, and of right ought to have, full power and
authority to make laws and statutes of sufficient force and validity
to bind the Colonies and people of America subjects of the Crown of
Great Britain, in all cases whatsoever." The expression "of right
ought to have" clearly meant "has by the law of nature and of
nations." Great Britain was thus declared to be the superior of
America, with power according to the law of nature and of nations, to
control, by its will, the will and action of America as a "dependent"
country, and of each and all of its inhabitants as "dependent"
individuals.

We discover, then, from an examination of the circumstances
surrounding the Declaration of Independence, a most interesting
situation. A young nation, separated by a wide ocean from Europe,
settled by men who were full of the spirit of the Reformation, deeply
convinced, after a national life of one hundred and fifty years, that
these principles were of universal application, was suddenly met by a
denial of these principles from the European State with which they
were most intimately related. This denial was accompanied by acts of
that State which amounted to a prohibition of the application of these
principles in American political life. This European State was indeed
the mother-country of America, and the Americans were bound to their
English brethren by every tie of interest and affection. The Americans
were o