his creed, political affiliation, or sectional tradition; for it, more than any other in American colonial history, typifies the spirit which has made of America a great nation. At Plymouth, more even than at Jamestown, the political doctrines which had grown out of Calvinistic theology took firm root. In religion the Puritans were bigoted and intolerant; but in political theories they represented the idea of the freedom and dignity of the individual. The God-given right of self-government was their political motto, and from it they never swerved. The great contest which we call the American Revolution was not, as is sometimes asserted, an attempt to throw off the shackles of tyranny, but was, on the contrary, a determined refusal to allow these shackles to be put on. George the Third and his obsequious minister, Lord North, were the real revolutionists; for they sought to take away from the American colonies rights of self-government as old as Jamestown and Plymouth. In this they failed, and their failure cost England an empire.

PLAN OF FORT TICONDEROGA

A restoration begun in 1909. The first fort, called Fort Carillon, was built by the French in 1755. It was taken by the British in 1758 and rebuilt as Fort Ticonderoga.

TICONDEROGA AND INDEPENDENCE HALL

THE ETHAN ALLEN HOUSE

An inn at Dorset, Vermont, where the Revolutionary hero used to stop.

TABLET AT TICONDEROGA

On this rock are the names of Ticonderoga’s heroes, Champlain, Montcalm, Lord Howe, Amherst and Burgoyne.

To tax a man without his consent has always been, since Magna Charta was written, contrary to the liberties of native-born Englishmen. It was therefore contrary also to the liberties of native-born Americans, and as such it was resisted by our ancestors of the revolutionary epoch, as it had been resisted by our ancestors of the colonial era. When, on May 10, 1775, Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold, sword in hand, called upon the king’s ancient fortress of Ticonderoga to surrender, giving as their authority “the great Jehovah and the Continental Congress,” they were but putting into striking phrase the political doctrines of Calvinism and seeking to enforce the royal promise that Americans of whatever colony were entitled to “all Liberties, Franchises, and Immunities … as if they had been abiding and born, within this, our Realm of England.” And when the great political figures of the Revolution—Adams, Witherspoon, Franklin, Jefferson, and the rest—assembled in Independence Hall, Philadelphia, and signed the Declaration of Independence, while the Liberty Bell pealed forth the notes of freedom, they were but repeating the declaration of the first American charter.

ETHAN ALLEN MONUMENT

Erected at Manchester, Vt., to the daring frontiersman who captured Fort Ticonderoga from the British.

Our Revolution was thus a war calmly entered upon to maintain immemorial rights and ancient institutions, whose preservation meant liberty not alone for America, but for England as well. Today we can clearly see what was at stake at Ticonderoga, at Bunker Hill, and upon the long chain of Revolutionary battlefields, stretching from the lakes to the faraway swamps of Georgia. Representative