"That liberty, or freedom, consists in having an actual share in
the appointment of those who frame the laws, and who are to be the
guardians of every man's life, property, and peace; for the all of
one man is as dear to him as the all of another, and the poor man
has an equal right, but more need, to have representatives in the
legislature than the rich one. That they who have no voice nor vote
in the electing of representatives do not enjoy liberty, but are
absolutely enslaved to those who have votes, and to their
representatives; for to be enslaved is to have governors whom other
men have set over us, and be subject to laws made by the
representatives of others, without having had representatives of our
own to give consent in our behalf."--BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, in Sparks's
Franklin, ii. 372.


WE THE PEOPLE


I remember that when I went to school I used to look with wonder on the
title of a now forgotten newspaper of those days which was then often in
the hands of one of the older scholars. I remember nothing else about the
newspaper, or about the boy, except that the title of the sheet he used to
unfold was "We the People;" and that he derived from it his school
nickname, by a characteristic boyish parody, and was usually mentioned as
"Us the Folks."

Probably all that was taught in that school, in regard to American history,
was not of so much value as the permanent fixing of this phrase in our
memories. It seemed very natural, in later years, to come upon my old