adopted by a great nation in practice.

There are yet, even at this day, many speculative objections to this
theory. Even in our own country, there are still philosophers who
deny the principles asserted in the Declaration, as self-evident
truths--who deny the natural equality and inalienable rights of man
--who deny that the people are the only legitimate source of power
--who deny that all just powers of government are derived from the
consent of the governed. Neither your time, nor perphaps the
cheerful nature of this occasion, permit me here to enter upon the
examination of this anti-revolutionary theory, which arrays State
sovereignty against the constituent sovereignty of the people, and
distorts the Constitution of the United States into a league of
friendship between confederate corporations, I speak to matters of
fact. There is the Declaration of Independence, and there is the
Constitution of the United States--let them speak for themselves.
The grossly immoral and dishonest doctrine of despotic State
sovereignty, the exclusive judge of its own obligations, and
responsible to no power on earth or in heaven, for the violation of
them, is not there. The Declaration says, it is not in me. The
Constitution says, it is not in me.



SAMUEL ADAMS (1723-1803)

Samuel Adams, called by his contemporaries, "the Father of the
American Revolution," drew up in 1764 the instructions of the people
of Boston to their representatives in the Massachusetts general
assembly, containing what is said to be the first official denial of