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CHAPTER I

I

John Adams on Party Divisions.

IN a letter that was written more than fifty years ago, by John Adams, who was the second President of the United States of America, and one of the signers of the Declaration of American Independence, Mr. Adams said : "You say that our divisions began with Federalism and Anti-Federalism. Alas! they began with human nature. They have existed in America from the first plantation. In every colony divisions always prevailed. In New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Massachusetts, and all the rest, a court and a country party have always contended. Whig and Tory disputed very sharply before the Revolution, and in every step during the Revolution. Every measure of Congress, from 1774 to 1788, inclusively, was disputed with acrimony."- Works of John Adams, Vol. X, p. 23.

II.

John Adams on Lost History.

In a note dated "Quincy, Jan. 3, 1817," and addressed to the editor of Niles' Register, Mr. Adams said: "In plain English, and in a few words, Mr. Niles, I consider the true history of the American Revolution, and of the

establishment of our present constitutions, as lost forever. And nothing but misrepresentations, or partial accounts of it, ever will be recovered."-Niles' Register, Jan. 18, 1817.

III.

Disputes on Nature of Government.

It is a very remarkable example, either of the imperfection of human knowledge, or of the perversity of human nature, that, from the 4th of July, 1776, to the present time (1871), the people of the United States of America have not been able to settle, amicably and definitely, a great, vexatious, and dangerous political controversy in reference to the origin and nature of their own Government.

IV.

Theory of Sovereignty of the People.

The supporters of the theory of the Sovereignty of the People of the Nation, believe that the Declaration of the Independence of the United States of America was made “in the name and by the authority of the good people" of thirteen united British colonies; that it was an act of original inherent sovereignty, done by the people themselves in a state of revolution; that the Articles of Confederation, which went into force on the first of March, 1781, were not formed as treaties and alliances are formed between sovereign and independent States; that the powers and rights granted or reserved to the several States, emanated from the sovereign power of the nation; that the Constitution of the United States of America was ordained and established by the will of the people of the United States; and that its powers are granted

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