To tax a man without his consent has always been, since Magna Charta was written, contrary to the liberties of native-born Englishmen. It was therefore contrary also to the liberties of native-born Americans, and as such it was resisted by our ancestors of the revolutionary epoch, as it had been resisted by our ancestors of the colonial era. When, on May 10, 1775, Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold, sword in hand, called upon the king’s ancient fortress of Ticonderoga to surrender, giving as their authority “the great Jehovah and the Continental Congress,” they were but putting into striking phrase the political doctrines of Calvinism and seeking to enforce the royal promise that Americans of whatever colony were entitled to “all Liberties, Franchises, and Immunities … as if they had been abiding and born, within this, our Realm of England.” And when the great political figures of the Revolution--Adams, Witherspoon, Franklin, Jefferson, and the rest--assembled in Independence Hall, Philadelphia, and signed the Declaration of Independence, while the Liberty Bell pealed forth the notes of freedom, they were but repeating the declaration of the first American charter. [Illustration: ETHAN ALLEN MONUMENT _Erected at Manchester, Vt., to the daring frontiersman who captured Fort Ticonderoga from the British._] Our Revolution was thus a war calmly entered upon to maintain immemorial rights and ancient institutions, whose preservation meant liberty not alone for America, but for England as well. Today we can clearly see what was at stake at Ticonderoga, at Bunker Hill, and upon the long chain of Revolutionary battlefields, stretching from the lakes to the faraway swamps of Georgia. Representative government hung in the balance, and whenever we hear of a nation’s rising against despotism and demanding that the people shall rule, we should add one more blossom to the garland which we are weaving for the graves of the men who gave Liberty to enlighten the world. Tennyson, with the soul of a true poet, though writing for Englishmen, has expressed the thought for all men: “Oh! Thou who sendest out the man, To rule by land and sea, Strong mother of a Lion-line, Be proud of those strong sons of thine, Who wrench’d their rights from Thee!” [Illustration: LIBERTY BELL _In Independence Hall, Philadelphia._] Years passed by. The ideas which had triumphed in the Revolution grew ever stronger in the nation that war had created. By slow degrees men came to understand more fully what it meant for the people to rule. [Illustration: ROOM IN INDEPENDENCE HALL _The room where the Declaration of Independence was adopted July 4, 1776. Much of the original furniture is preserved here, and the portraits of those who signed the Declaration hang about the walls._]