The Colonies were not little political heavens. Their ideas of liberty did not extend to Indians, or Negroes, or Quakers. Nevertheless, in the main, they stood stoutly for freedom of person, freedom of judicial trial, freedom of legislative bodies; and they were about half a century earlier than England in establishing (in the famous Zenger case of 1734) the priceless right publicly to criticize their own governments. John Wise, who was one of them, had a right to say that they “hate an arbitrary power (politically considered) as they hate the devil.” _Hartford, the “Birthplace of American Democracy”_ The first written constitution in history that was adopted by a people and that also organized a government, “The Fundamental Orders of Connecticut,” was drawn up in 1639 by freemen of Windsor, Hartford and Wethersfield. Under this law the people of Connecticut lived for nearly two centuries. The twelve articles it comprised expressed “pure democracy acting through representation, and imposing organic limitations.” “Here is the first practical assertion of the right of the people, not only to choose, but to limit the powers of their rulers--an assertion that lies at the foundation of the American system. It is on the banks of the Connecticut, under the mighty preaching of Thomas Hooker, and in the constitution to which he gave life, if not form, that we draw the first breath of that atmosphere which is now so familiar to us. The birthplace of American Democracy is Hartford.” [Illustration: PAUL REVERE] [Illustration: READING THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE FROM THE STATE HOUSE, BOSTON] By common consent, the period when these principles of liberty of person and of government were first clearly impressed on the world was in the American Revolution, which deserves to be called the cradle of modern liberty. When things grew squally in the Colonies, our forefathers insisted that their brand of liberty was better than the British kind, and they began to draw up lists of rights and grievances, especially in the Stamp Act Congress of 1765. The new states of the American Union, as they were organized, bound themselves to observe Bills of Rights containing such stirring principles as that, “All power is vested in, and consequently derived from, the people.” “All elections ought to be free, and that all men having sufficient evidence of permanent interest with, and attached to the community, have the right of suffrage.”--“The freedom of the press is one of the great bulwarks of liberty.”--“All men are equally entitled to the free exercise of religion, according to the dictates of conscience.”