Thank you. As it happens, only a few days after I published this I found that in 1860 the representatives of an American state read the history of the Declaration as I do. When South Carolina began the great rush to secession, it released an "Ordnance" clearly modelled on the Declaration, if much longer. Among a great deal of very arguable law, and rather more verbiage than Jefferson had found necessary, there is this statement: In the year 1765, that portion of the British Empire embracing Great Britain, undertook to make laws for the government of that portion composed of the thirteen American Colonies. A struggle for the right of self-government ensued, which resulted, on the 4th of July, 1776, in a Declaration, by the Colonies, “that they are, and of right ought to be, FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATES; and that, as free and independent States, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent States may of right do.” This bears out my interpretation; and one does not have to be right about the whole of an argument (since when does “a more perfect union” mean “hanging around till we find something better to do”?) to be right on the historical bases that he is using to prove his point.
In the year 1765, that portion of the British Empire embracing Great Britain, undertook to make laws for the government of that portion composed of the thirteen American Colonies. A struggle for the right of self-government ensued, which resulted, on the 4th of July, 1776, in a Declaration, by the Colonies, “that they are, and of right ought to be, FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATES; and that, as free and independent States, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent States may of right do.”
This bears out my interpretation; and one does not have to be right about the whole of an argument (since when does “a more perfect union” mean “hanging around till we find something better to do”?) to be right on the historical bases that he is using to prove his point.
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