There are two kinds of nations in the world, those nations which believe that governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed and those other nations which believe that power comes from God to Kings to be used over people who have nothing to say about its use. The first is a democracy, even though it have a monarch nominally as its head. The other is an autocracy. And, since this is a war of democracy against autocracy, it is really a war of the free people of the world against the bondsmen and their masters. There was a time when all the great nations of the world had Kings. It was part of the evolution of the social system. Nations need leaders, and there were men so strong that they were able to seize and hold leadership, keeping it for their sons so that the people came to accept one family as its rulers. But in time some nations began to emerge from the yoke that these rulers set upon them. The people, who had been serfs and slaves, began to demand a voice in the government. Kings and nobles began to lose power in these nations with the awakening of the people. The signing of the Magna Charta in England by King John marked the transfer of power from the King. Bit by bit in those nations tending toward liberal government the shift of power took place. It was not until the last quarter of the eighteenth century, however, that the theory of free government flowered and bore fruit. Then the Thirteen Colonies of Great Britain, situated along the western Atlantic seaboard, revolted against the imposition of a tax that the colonists considered unjust, went to war, and won the war. They established the United States of America, a nation which has been from that day to this a genuine democracy, a free republic based absolutely on the doctrine that power came from the people, and that government exists merely as the steward of that power. It was through the aid given to the Colonies by France, brought by Lafayette and Rochambeau, that the War of the Revolution was won. The French soldiers, returning home at its close, took with them reinforcement of the spirit of desire for freedom that was already animating France and which in time brought about the beginnings of the French Revolution, a war which changed France from a monarchy where the King said with truth “I am the state” to a real democracy.