extend its Constitution over these regions,—regions which, it is to be remembered, can never, from their local and other circumstances, participate on equal terms in the institution or operation of the Government of the State.

In trying to rediscover this via media of the Fathers I shall accept the Declaration of Independence as the final and complete exposition of their theories, and in interpreting that great document I shall conform to the established rules of law governing the interpretation of written instruments.

Let me first, however, call attention to the well known, but very interesting fact that the American people throughout this period of eight years since the Spanish war during which the question has been discussed by experts almost exclusively as one which relates to the application of the Constitution outside the Union, have always had an idea that it was the Declaration of Independence, rather than the Constitution, to which we were to look for the solution of our Insular problems. In 1900, the Democrats, in their platform, "reaffirmed their faith in the Declaration of Independence—that immortal proclamation of the inalienable rights of man and described it as "the spirit of our Government, of which the Constitution is the form and letter." The Republicans in their platform declared it to be "the high duty of Government ... to confer the blessings of liberty and civilization upon all rescued peoples," and announced their intention to secure to these peoples "the largest measure of self government consistent with their welfare and our duties." The Populists in their platform in the same year, insisted that "the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the American flag are one and inseparable." The Silver Republicans declared that they "recognized that the principles set forth in the Declaration of Independence are fundamental and everlastingly true in their application to government among men." The Anti-Imperialists declared that the truths of the Declaration, not less self-evident to-day than when first announced by the Fathers, are of universal application, and cannot be abandoned while government by the people endures." In 1904, the Democratic party, while professing adherence to fundamental principles declared in favor of casting into the outer darkness of the fictitious "independence" every people "incapable of being governed under American laws, and in consonance with the American Constitution," but the Populists still held to the principles of the Declaration, while the Republicans held to their declarations of 1900.

It is an ancient and well established rule of law for the interpretation of written instruments that when the meaning of the words used is not so clear as to leave no room for doubt and when there thus exists what is called in law an ambiguity, it is proper to consider the circumstances surrounding the execution of the instruments, so that, by placing ourselves as nearly as possible in the same situation in which the persons who executed the instrument were at the time of its execution, we may have a basis for forming a reasonable opinion as to which of two or more possible constructions is correct. That such an ambiguity exists in the Declaration is undeniable. Opinions concerning the meaning of its philosophic statements, and indeed of nearly all its statements, differ between extremes at one of which are arrayed those who, with Rufus Choate and John James Ingalls, regard its philosophic declarations as "glittering generalities," and at the other of which stand that great body of men and women, living and dead, who, with Abraham Lincoln, believe, and have believed, that these declarations are the foundation of the only true and final science of politics. Following this ancient rule of interpretation, therefore, let us consider the circumstances surrounding the Declaration of Independence.

From the earliest times, the political philosophy of the people of America was directly connected with the religious and political philosophy of the Reformation. The essence of that philosophy was that man was essentially a spiritual being; that each man was the direct and immediate creature of a personal God, who was the First Cause; that each man as such a spiritual creature was in direct and immediate relationship with God, as his Creator; that between men, as spiritual creatures, there was no possibility of comparison by the human mind, the divine spark which is the soul being an essence incapable of measurement and containing possibilities of growth, and perhaps of deterioration, known only to God; that therefore all men, as essentially spiritual beings, were equal in the sight of all other men. Luther and Calvin narrowed this philosophy by assuming that this spiritual nature and this equality were properties only of professing Christians, but Fox, followed by Perm, enlarged and universalized it by treating the Christian doctrine as declaratory of a universal truth. Penn's doctrine of the universal "inner light," which was in every man from the beginning of the world and will be to the end, and which is Christ,—according to which doctrine every human being who has ever been, who is, or who is to be, is inevitably by virtue of his humanity, a spiritual being, the creature of God, and, as directly and immediately related spiritually to Him, the equal of every other man,—marked the completion of the Reformation.

According to this theory, the life of animals, who, being created unequal, are from birth to death engaged in a struggle for existence in which the fittest survives, is eternally and universally differentiated by a wide and deep chasm from the life of men, who, being created equal, are engaged in a struggle against the deteriorating forces of the universe in which each helps each and all and in which each and all labor that each and all may not only live, but may live more and more abundantly.

According to this theory, also, the glaring inequalities of physical strength, of intellectual power and cunning, and of material wealth, which are, on a superficial view, the determining facts of all social and political life, are merely unequal distributions of the common wealth, and each person is considered to hold and use his strength, his talents and his property for the development of each and all as beings essentially equal.

According to this theory, also, there is for mankind no "state of nature" in which men are equally independent and equally disregardful of others, which by agreement or consent becomes a "state of society" in which men are equally free and equally regardful of others, but the "state of nature" and the "state of society" are one and the same thing. Every man is regarded as created in a state of society and brotherhood with all other men, and the "state of nature,"—man's natural estate and condition,—is the "state of society."

Were anyone asked to sum up in the most concise form possible the ultimate doctrine of the Reformation, he could, perhaps, epitomize it no more correctly than by the single proposition, "All men are created equal." This doctrine of human equality arising from common creation, growing out of Lutheranism and Calvinism through the intellectual influence of Penn, and the broadening effect of life in this new and fruitful land, underlay all American life and institutions.

One of the results of this final theory of the Reformation was the conception, by certain devout men and great scholars, of a "law of nature and of nations," based on revelation and reason, which was universally prevalent, and which governed the relations of men, of communities of states and of nations. Out of this there had then emerged the conception which has now become common under the