With these great representative names to illustrate the American idea I might close the catalogue. Surely this is sufficient. But there are others, whose authority cannot be disregarded. * * * * * Here is the testimony of that inflexible spirit, who had thought and acted much, Samuel Adams, in a letter to his kinsman, John Adams:-- “That the sovereignty _resides in the people_ is a political doctrine which I have never heard an American politician seriously deny.… _We, the people_, is the style of the Federal Constitution. They adopted it; and, conformably to it, they delegate the exercise of the powers of government to particular persons, who, after short intervals, resign their powers _to the people_, and they will reëlect them, or appoint others, as they think fit.”[147] Here also is the testimony of another Republican, who signed the Declaration of Independence, Roger Sherman, in a letter to John Adams:-- “What especially denominates it a _Republic_ is its dependence on the _public_ or _people at large_, without any hereditary powers. But it is not of so much importance by what appellation the government is distinguished as to have it well constituted _to secure the rights and advance the happiness of the community_.”[148] There also was John Adams himself, who was the least distinct of all the Fathers on this question; but we find in the Preface to his Defence of the American Constitutions a passage full of prophetic meaning:-- “Thirteen governments, thus founded on _the natural authority of the people alone_, without a pretence of miracle or mystery, and which are destined to spread over the northern part of that whole quarter of the globe, are a great point gained in favor of _the rights of mankind_.”[149] Here is a plain assertion that our Thirteen States were founded “on the natural authority of the people alone,” and that they were destined to spread over all North America. Charles Pinckney, in a speech on the adoption of the Constitution, speaks for South Carolina:-- “The doctrine of representation is the fundamental of a republic.… As to the United Netherlands, it is such a confusion of states and assemblies, that I have always been at loss what species of government to term it. According to my idea of the word, it is not a republic; for I conceive it as indispensable in a republic that all authority should flow from the people.… A republic is _where the people at large_, either collectively or by representation, form the Legislature.”[150] Luther Martin, an able representative of Maryland in the Convention, while vindicating a prohibition or tax on the importation of slaves, said:--