[35] Helen Herritt Russell, "The Great Runaway of 1778," _The Journal of the Lycoming Historical Society_, II, No. 4 (1961), 3-10. This article contains a few additions to an article by the same name by Mrs. Russell published in _The Northumberland County Historical Society Proceedings and Addresses_, XXIII (1960), 1-16. [36] _Pennsylvania Archives_, Second Series, III, 518-522. [37] Smith, _Laws_, II, 195. [38] Robert Fleming and Frederick Antes, as previously noted, had been elected in 1777 and 1784, respectively. [39] Dunaway, _History of Pennsylvania_, pp. 176, 196. Of these fifty-eight, twenty-eight came from the frontier counties of York, Berks, Bedford, Cumberland, and Northumberland. [40] Wallace, _Pennsylvania: Seed of a Nation_, pp. 105-106. [41] As previously noted, Henry Antes had been appointed judge of the Court of Quarter Sessions in 1775, and Frederick Antes and Fleming had been elected in 1780 and 1785, respectively. Frederick Antes was president judge. [42] _Pennsylvania Archives_, Second Series, III, 770. CHAPTER SEVEN _Democracy on the Pennsylvania Frontier_ One of the most often used and least understood words in the American lexicon is the term "democracy." In the colonial period, it was seldom used, except in denunciation. However, properly defined, it can help us to evaluate the Fair Play settlers in some understandable context. Etymologically stemming from two Greek words, _demos_, meaning "the people," and _kratos_, meaning "authority," democracy means "authority in the people" or, we can say, "self-determination." By self-determination is meant the right of the people to decide their own political, economic, and social institutions. Self-determination in its basic, or political, context can best be explained through James Bryce's definition of a democracy. Lord Bryce said: The word Democracy has been used ever since the time of Herodotus to denote that form of government in which the ruling power of a State is legally vested, not in any particular class or classes, but in the members of the community as a whole.[1] Analyzing the key phrases in Bryce's statement, we can best clarify the meaning of political self-determination. (1) "The ruling power of a State." Self-determination, as it is employed here, concerns the right of the people of Fair Play society to determine their own political institutions. Fair Play society did not constitute a state, but it was a political community, and in that sense Bryce's definition applies. Living outside the legal limit of settlement of Province and Commonwealth, these people could not obtain legal authority for their own rule, so, following the prevalent theory of the social compact, they formed their own government. The result was the annual election, by the people, of the Fair Play tribunal, the source of final authority in the Fair Play territory.