IV.
The Declaration of Independence uttered in 1776, was considered, at that day, as the most important act which had every occurred in this Country, and subsequent time has not weakened the sentiment it was then intended to inculcate.
We will continue to commemorate it annually, on the day of its date, when all the citizens of these now United States, join with one accord, in humble adoration and joyful thanksgiving to that Divine Providence, under whose protection, the great truths it announces were afterwards maintained and established.
But if the effect of this Declaration, was to consolidate all the then Colonies, by whose representatives it was made, as one nation, and to amalgamate their inhabitants into "One People," the Fourth day of July, instead of being celebrated as a Jubilee, would probably be spent much more appropriately in weeping and in wailing. Was such the true nature and intended effect of this Declaration? This is the question I propose now to examine.
In speaking of this Declaration, the President says in his Proclamation, "that decisive and important step was taken jointly—we declared ourselves a Nation by joint, not be several acts." It is obvious from this passage, that its author designed to establish the existence of a Nation, not less by the manner in which this Declaration was made, than by the actual assertions of the instrument itself: for not satisfied with stating that this step was taken jointly, he adds, that by such a joint act we declared ourselves a Nation. I will examine into the truth of all these assertions, before I give my own views of the subject.
A joint act, ex vi termini, implies the co-operation of several agents, by whose united and joined agencies it has been produced.
