Alpheus Henry Snow

“ The Americans claimed the right of free statehood as a part of the universal rights of man, but they claimed the right of self-government because they were Englishmen trained by generations of experience in the art of self-government and so capable of exercising the art. A state is not less or more a free state because it has self-government. It is a free state when its just public sentiment is to any extent ascertained and executed by its government,—however that government may be instituted,—free from the control of any external power. ”

“ A government which recognizes itself as deriving its just powers from the consent of the governed, is bound to do justice in such manner as will conform to the just public sentiment of the governed. It is in no case bound to execute the will of the governed, much less the will of the majority, unless that will conforms to justice in the particular case. Nor can it do an unjust act and plead in justification the consent of the governed, for the consent of the governed to an unjust act is void by the law of nature and of nations. ”

“ It is only necessary for us to realize that the Constitution is itself but one application of the great principles of the American System which, as the Supreme Court says, are "formulated" in it, and to proceed, by a new formulation or by adjudication, to apply these principles outside the present Union wherever American jurisdiction extends, in the confident belief that they can be applied universally, and that, wherever applied, they will bring the blessings of true liberty. ”

“ Why quit our own to stand upon foreign ground? Why by interweaving our destiny with that of any part of Europe entangle our peace and prosperity in the toils of European ambition, rivalship, interest, humor, or caprice?
It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world. ”

“ The great field of law which concerns the permanent relations of free states is not yet covered by a recognized science. Must there not therefore emerge from this conception of a universal and common law of nature and of nations, a third science of law, covering this field, which will take as its basal proposition the doctrine that free statehood is the normal and rightful condition of all communities on the earth's surface within suitable limits for the formation of a just public sentiment, and which will concern itself with the permanent relations between free states? ”

“ Here in America, political thinking, following the line of least resistance, has, as a general rule, concentrated itself upon the Constitution of the United States, as if in that instrument an answer was to be found for every political problem with which the Union may be confronted. To some of us, however, it has appeared inconsistent with the principles of the American Revolution that the Constitution of the United States should be the Constitution of any communities except the thirteen States forming the original Union and those which they have admitted into their Union ”

“ To those who regard all law as an aggregate of eternal and universal principles inhering in the nature of things, which are discoverable by man through revelation and reason, and who therefore regard all governmental action as the ascertainment and application of these principles, the conception of a common and universal Law of Connections and Unions of Free States and that of a common and universal International Law, are equally without difficulty. ”

“ According to this theory, also, there is for mankind no "state of nature" in which men are equally independent and equally disregardful of others, which by agreement or consent becomes a "state of society" in which men are equally free and equally regardful of others, but the "state of nature" and the "state of society" are one and the same thing. Every man is regarded as created in a state of society and brotherhood with all other men, and the "state of nature,"—man's natural estate and condition,—is the "state of society." ”

“ The Populists in their platform in the same year, insisted that "the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the American flag are one and inseparable." The Silver Republicans declared that they "recognized that the principles set forth in the Declaration of Independence are fundamental and everlastingly true in their application to government among men." The Anti-Imperialists declared that the truths of the Declaration, not less self-evident to-day than when first announced by the Fathers, are of universal application, and cannot be abandoned while government by the people endures." ”

“ The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. ”

“ We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.... ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Thus "dependence," as a fictitious and vicious form of connection, is, it would appear, forever opposed to "connection" of a just and proper kind. If it were attempted to sum up the issue of the American Revolution in an epigram, would not that epigram be: "'Colony,' or 'Free State?' 'Dependence,' or 'Just Connection?' 'Empire,' or 'Union?'"
According to the opinion of the Revolutionary statesmen, as it would seem, a universal right of free statehood does not imply a universal right of self-government. Statehood and self-government are two different and distinct conceptions. ”