CHAPTER III

THE DEVELOPMENT OF AMERICAN DEMOCRACY


22. LOCAL VERSUS NATIONAL SPIRIT.--The outbreak of the American
Revolution proved that the colonies were so deeply attached to
democracy that they were willing to fight for it. But the spirit which
animated the Revolution was local, rather than national. The colonial
protests which in 1776 reached their climax in the Declaration of
Independence, had to do almost entirely with the rights of the
colonies as individual states, and with the determination of those
states to defend the principle of self-government. The war created
thirteen practically independent states, among which the spirit of
state sovereignty was much stronger than was the inclination to form
an indissoluble union. The Revolution emphasized local and state
interests rather than intercolonial coöperation, and however much the
colonists appreciated local democracy in 1776, they had yet to learn
to think in terms of a national patriotism. A brief review of the
attempts at union before 1787 will serve to illustrate this important
point.

23. EARLY ATTEMPTS AT UNION.--The first notable attempt at union was
made in 1643, when Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, Connecticut, and New
Haven formed a league, chiefly for the purpose of mutual defense. This
league was in force for forty years, and rendered effective service in