The Writings of Samuel Adams - Volume 2Adams, Samuel
History
The Writings of Samuel Adams - Volume 2
Adams, Samuel
United States -- Politics and government -- 1775-1783; United States -- Politics and government -- 1783-1809
Your Excellency says, that "persons thus holding under the Crown
of England, remain, or become subjects of England," by which, we
suppose your Excellency to mean, subject to the supreme authority
of Parliament, "to all intents and purposes, as fully, as if any of
the royal manors, &c. within the realm, had been granted to them upon
the like tenure." We apprehend, with submission, your Excellency is
mistaken in supposing that our allegiance is due to the Crown of
England. Every man swears allegiance for himself, to his own King, in
his natural person. Every subject is presumed by law to be sworn to
the King, which is to his natural person," says Lord Coke. Rep. on
Calvin's case.5 "The allegiance is due to his natural body;" and,
he says, "in the reign of Edward II. the Spencers, the father and
the son, to cover the treason hatched in their hearts, invented
this damnable and damned opinion, that homage and oath of allegiance
was more by reason of the King's Crown, that is, of his politic
capacity, than by reason of the person of the King; upon which
opinion, they inferred execrable and detestable consequents." The
Judges of England, all but one, in the case of the union between
Scotland and England, declared, that "allegiance followeth the natural
person, not the politic;" and, "to prove the allegiance to be tied to
the body natural of the King, and not to the body politic, the Lord
Coke cited the phrases of divers statutes, mentioning our natural
liege Sovereign." If, then, the homage and allegiance is not to the
body politic of the King, then it is not to him as the head, or any
part of that Legislative authority, which your Excellency says, "is
equally extensive with the authority of the Crown throughout every
part of the dominion;" and your Excellency's observations thereupon,
must fail. The same Judges mention the allegiance of a subject to the
Kings of England, who is out of the reach and extent of the laws of
England, which is perfectly reconcileable with the principles of
our ancestors, quoted before from your Excellency's history, but,
upon your Excellency's principles, appears to us to be an
absurdity. The Judges, speaking of a subject, say, "although his
birth was out of the bounds of the kingdom of England, and out of
the reach and extent of the laws of England, yet, if it were
within the allegiance of the King of England, &c. Normandy,
Aquitain, Gascoign, and other places, within the limits of France,
and, consequently, out of the realm or bounds of the kingdom of
England, were in subjection to the Kings of England." And the
Judges say, "Rex et Regnum, be not so relatives, as a King can be
King but of one kingdom, which clearly holdeth not, but that his
kingly power extending to divers nations and kingdoms, all owe him
equal subjection, and are equally born to the benefit of his
protection; and, although he is to govern them by their distinct
laws, yet any one of the people coming into the other, is to have
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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