control of any external power. It does not prevent a region from being
a free state that its government is wholly or partly appointed by an
external power, if that government is free from external control in
ascertaining and executing the just local sentiment to any extent. Nor
does it interfere with the right of free statehood when an external
power stands by merely to see that the local government ascertains
and executes the just local sentiment to a proper extent. The external
power in that case is upholding the free statehood of the region. It
stands as surety for the continuance of free statehood.

The right of self-government, according to this view, is a conditional
universal right of free states. When a community, inhabiting a region of
such territorial extent that it is not too large to make it possible for
a just public sentiment concerning its affairs to be developed and
executed, and not so small as to make it inconvenient that it should be
in any respect free from external control, is of such moral and
intellectual capacity that it can form and execute a just public
sentiment concerning its internal affairs and its relations with other
communities, states and nations, it has not only the right of free
statehood,--that is, of political personality,--which is of universal
right, but also the right of self-government. The right of such a free
state to self-government is complete if there be no just political
connection or union between it and other free states, or partial, if
such a just connection or union exists, being limited, in this latter
case, to the extent necessary for the preservation, in due order, of the
connection or union.

Independence was regarded apparently also, by the Declaration, when it
declared the Colonies to be "free and independent states," to be a
right superadded to the right of free statehood in some cases, and