Separating from the Declaration its catalogue of specific and temporary reasons for revolt, its whole purport is to set forth――the natural freedom and equality of all men before the law; the fundamental right of those governed to pass upon the form of government they shall live under, and to subvert it if not satisfactory; and the right of all men to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,――this last phrase seeming a broad generalization capable of wide interpretation. No one of these doctrines was original with the signers, and the Committee reporting the Declaration made no pretence to have originated them. Every principle had been stated and advocated long before by European philosophers and writers,――and the claim has been made that the Declaration itself bore a strong resemblance to that of the United Netherlands,――but it was the first practical application of such principles to an actual system of popular government. The author of the Declaration said in later years, “I did not consider it as any part of my charge to invent new ideas altogether, and to offer no sentiment which had ever been expressed before.” It may properly be regarded, therefore, as a crystallization of old theories, and as such its promulgation excited surprise in Europe, mingled with a good deal of skepticism as to its being a working basis for government or as to the possibility of adherence to it in practice. This feeling was a natural one, for if its doctrines were true and extended elsewhere the prospect was dark for theories of the divine right of kings, of despotic power, or even of current monarchical systems; and therein lies the very pith of the Declaration, and it was no wonder that when the seeds sown here ripened a little later in France and the bloody revolution there ended in a military despotism the prophets of evil quickly seized upon the result as a practical test and welcome proof of the absurdity of our position. In the Orient it made no impression and in fact had no meaning, for such theories were not within the Oriental conception; nor are they now so far as they spell Republicanism. Dr. Edward Everett Hale recently sent a letter to an United States Senator, which well represents how such doctrines impress the Oriental mind, and is worth quoting as follows: “When Commodore Perry opened the ports of Japan the Japanese Government had in prison a young fellow from Washington Territory who had been shipwrecked on their coast,――he was in prison only because he was a foreigner. They cross-examined him and asked him what officer in our government held higher rank than the men they knew. He said the officers of the Navy had to obey the Secretary of the Navy, and that he was under the President. They asked him who was greater than the President. This boy said that ‘the people is greater than the Presidency,’ and in giving the account of this afterward he said, ‘of this they could make nothing.’”