the revolutionary war, Massachusetts and Virginia resisted English tyranny.  Massachusetts, in 1664, called herself a “perfect republic.”  She preserved a neutral harbor by force of arms against opposing English factions; she enacted laws against the supremacy of the English parliament, and she established her own mint.  This last is noticeable, as in the progress of liberty, rights of property, of which money is the exponent, have always been one of the foremost.  Bancroft says Virginia was always a land of liberty; that Virginia placed the defense of liberty not in municipal corporations, but in persons, and that the liberty of the individual was ever highly prized.  The difference between a monarchy and a republic is the difference between force and consent; it is the difference between being governed and governing yourself; it is the difference between the men of Russia and the men of the United States; it is the difference between the political rights of one man as the government and the political rights of the people as the government.  But the world has never yet seen a true republic, though it has for hundreds of years been taking steps towards one.

The original principles of just governments are five, all of which were acknowledged by the United States at its foundation.  These principles are: 

First. The natural right of each individual to self-government.

Second. The exact equality of these rights.

Third. That these rights when not delegated by the individual, are retained by the individual.

Fourth. That no person can exercise these rights of others without delegated authority.

Fifth. That the non-use of these rights does not destroy them.

These five underlying principles are the admitted basis of all governmental rights, and the old revolutionists acted upon them.  They were men of middle life; they were under an old and established form of government to which they had not delegated authority, and during all these years they had made no use of their natural, equal rights.  When they chose to assume the exercise of these rights, they at once took them up.

The women of that day were no less in earnest than were the men.  Mercy Otis Warren, sister of that James Otis whose fiery words did so much towards rousing the colonies, was herself no less in earnest, had no less influence than her brother.  She was a member of the famous committee of correspondence, and was constantly consulted by Adams, Jefferson, Franklin, Hancock, Washington and all the foremost men of that day.  Through her lips was first whispered the word, separation.  No less active were the women of New England, and in 1770, five years before the breaking out of the revolutionary war, the women of Boston held a public meeting, and formed themselves into a league to resist taxation.  As tea was the article upon which Great Britain was then making