CHAPTER VIII
THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION: THE PEOPLE
AS CONSTITUENT POWERWe hold these truths to be self- evident, that all men are created equal, that they are
endowed, by their Creator, with certain unalienable 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 gov-
erned, that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it
is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it....
—THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE OF
THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 1776
It is a general maxim in every government, there must exist, somewhere, a supreme,
sovereign, absolute and uncontrollable power; but this power resides always in the
body of the people; and it never was, or can be delegated to one man, or a few.
—THE GENERAL COURT OF MASSACHUSETTS, 1776
... those deluded People.
—KING GEORGE III, 1775
If it be asked what the American Revolution distinctively contributed to the
world’s stock of ideas, the answer might go somewhat along these lines. It did not
contribute primarily a social doctrine—for although a certain skepticism toward
social rank was an old American attitude, and possibly even a gift to mankind, it
long antedated the Revolution, which did not so much cut down, as prevent the
growth of, an aristocracy of European type. It did not especially contribute eco-
nomic ideas—for the Revolution had nothing to teach on the production or distri-