It began when, perhaps years before the first whisper of
discontent, Thomas Jefferson sat down in his Virginian study to read the
latest work of the ingenious M. Rousseau.

For now the time was rife for such intellectual leadership as Jefferson,
armed by Rousseau, could supply. The challenge flung down by the British
Government in the matter of the Charter of Massachusetts was to be taken
up. The argument that whatever rights Americans might have they derived
from Royal Charters was to be answered by one who held that their
"inalienable rights" were derived from a primordial charter granted not
by King George but by his Maker.

The second Continental Congress, after many hesitations, determined at
length upon a complete severance with the mother country. A resolution
to that effect was carried on the motion of Lee, the great Virginian
gentleman, an ancestor of the noblest of Southern warriors. After much
adroit negotiations a unanimous vote was secured for it. A committee was
appointed to draft a formal announcement and defence of the step which
had been taken. Jefferson was chosen a member of the committee, and to
him was most wisely entrusted the drafting of the famous "Declaration."

The introductory paragraphs of the Declaration of Independence contain
the whole substance of the faith upon which the new Commonwealth was to
be built. Without a full comprehension of their contents the subsequent
history of America would be unintelligible. It will therefore be well to
quote them here verbatim, and I do so the more readily because, apart
from their historic importance, it is a pity that more Englishmen are
not acquainted with this masterpiece of English prose.

_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 for the opinion of Mankind requires that they shall
declare the cause that impels 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 inalienable 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 governme