"But if these truths to which the declaration refers have not before been adopted in their combined entirety by national authority, it is a fact that they had been long pondered and often expressed in political speculation. It is generally assumed that French thought had some effect upon our public mind during Revolutionary days. This may have been true. But the principles of our declaration had been under discussion in the Colonies for nearly two generations before the advent of the French political philosophy that characterized the middle of the eighteenth century. In fact, they come from an earlier date. A very positive echo of what the Dutch had done in 1581, and what the English were preparing to do, appears in the assertion of the Reverend Thomas Hooker of Connecticut as early as 1638, when he said in a sermon before the General Court that 'The foundation of authority is laid in the free consent of the people'. 'The choice of public magistrates belongs unto the people by God's own allowance'."
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Presidents of the United StatesPoliticians from MassachusettsAutobiographers from the United StatesPoliticians from VermontUnited States presidential candidates, 1932
Original Language: English
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Calvin Coolidge
1872 – 1933
US-amerikanischer Politiker
402 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Calvin Coolidge →
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