nly radical Englishmen, who gloried in the fact that England of
all the countries of Europe had gone farthest in accepting the
principles of the Reformation, and who had emigrated reluctantly from
England, because they were out of harmony with the tendency of English
political life to compromise between the principles of Mediaevalism and
the principles of the Reformation. The Declaratory Act of 1766 brought
clearly into comparison the political system of America, as opposed to
the political system of Europe. It was inevitable from that moment
that the American System, based on the principles of the Reformation
in their broadest sense and their most universal application and
briefly summed up in the proposition that "all men are created equal,"
must conquer, or be conquered by, the European System, based either on
the principles of Mediaevalism, summed up in the proposition that "all
men are created unequal," or on a compromise between the principles of
Mediaevalism and the Reformation, summed up in the proposition that
"some men are created equal, and some unequal."

In the light of this situation, let us examine the words of the
Declaration. The philosophical statements in which we are interested,
read:

"When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary
for one people to dissolve the political bands which have
connected them with another, and to assume, among the powers
of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the
laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent
respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should
declare the causes which impel them to the separation:--

"We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all men are
created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with
certain unalienable rights, that among these are life,
liberty and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these
rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their
just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever
any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it
is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to
institute new government, laying its foundation on such
principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to
them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and
happiness."

* * * * *

"Finally we do assert