American Political Writing During the Founding Era: 1760–1805: Two Volume Paperback Set

29. Demophilus [George Bryan?], The Genuine Principles of the Ancient Saxon, or English[,] Constitution

PolWritV1_301-350.indd 340 2/21/12 10:06 AM [29} DEMOPHILUS [ GEORGE BRYAN?] The Genuine Principles of the Ancient Saxon, or English [,] Constitution PHILADELPHIA, 1776 American colonists had always viewed themselves as more virtuous, 1"\. more manly, than their fellow Englishmen back home, and they also viewed themselves as being freer because they possessed to a greater degree the pristine English political institutions. Put in terms of the day, Americans often viewed themselves as carrying on the Saxon yoeman tradition of self-rule by rough equals. The link with a supposed golden age of freedom before the Norman invasion was a popular theme and can be found in the piece by Richard Bland, for instance, but the connection with the supposed Saxon past is made in most full blown form in this essay by Demophilus. Several historians identify Demophilus as the radical Whig George Bryan, who, along with James Cannon and Timothy Matlack, was prominent in writing the r776 Pennsylvania Constitution, the most radical constitution of its era. He also served in the legislature where he was a prominent figure in state politics. Regardless, this essay is a masterpiece of rhetoric. It manages to lay out a coherent and radical position and, at the same time, appeals effectively to American identification with yoeman virtues, which lends this position legitimacy. Introduction. As, by the tyranny of GEORGE the Third, the compact of allegiance and protection between him and the good people of this Colony is totally dissolved , and the whole power of government is by that means returned to the people at large; it is become absolutely necessary to [ 340 J PolWritV1_301-350.indd 341 2/21/12 10:06 AM ( 34 I } DEMOPHILUS have this power collected and again reposed in such hands as may be judged most likely to employ it for the common good. In most states, men have been too careless in the delegation of their governmental power; and not only disposed of it in a very improper manner, but suffered it to continue so long in the same hands, that the deputies have, like the King and Lords of Great-Britain, at length become possessors in their own right; and instead of public servants, are in fact the masters of the public. Our new Republics should use the utmost caution to avoid those fatal errors; and be supremely careful in placing that dangerous power of controlling the actions of individuals, in such a manner that it may not counteract the end for which it was established. Government may be considered, a deposite of the power of society in certain hands, whose business it is to restrain, and in some cases to take off such members of the community as disturb the quiet and destroy the security of the honest and peaceable subject. This government is founded in the nature of man, and is the obvious end of civil society; "yet such is the thirst of power [4] in most men, that they will sacrifice heaven and earth to wrest it from its foundation; to establish a power in themselves to tyrannize over the persons and properties of others." To prevent this, let every article of the constitution or sett offundamental rules by which even the supreme power of the state shall be governed, be formed by a convention of the delegates of the people, appointed for that express purpose: which constitution shall neither be added to, diminished from, nor altered in any respect by any power besides the power which first framed it. By this means an effectual bar will be opposed to those enterprizing spirits, who have told us with much assurance, that after the people had made their annual or septennial offering, they had no more to do with government than their cattle. A Convention being soon to sit in PHILADELPHIA; I have thought it my duty to collect some sentiments from a certain very scarce book, entitled an Historical Essay on the English Constitution, and publish them, with whatever improving observations our different circumstances may suggest, for the perusal of the gentlemen concerned in the arduous task of framing a constitution. "That beautiful system, formed, (as Montesquieu says,) in the German woods, was introduced into England about the year four hundred and fifty." The peculiar excellence of this system consisted in its incorporating small parcels of the people into little communities PolWritV1_301-350.indd 342 2/21/12 10:06...