38

Swartbmore Xecture.

The American Declaration of Independence ofJuly ifh, 1776, the subsequent constitutions of theseveral states, the American War of Independence (1776-83) and finally the Constitution of the Union(September 17th, 1787), signify the setting up inthe new world of a great democratic and federativerepublic, which step by step rose to an equalitywith the powers of the old world, until in our daysthe world centre of gravity came to be includedwithin its borders. No event in history hasheld such momentous consequences as this fromthe point of view of the dissemination of politicalideas. Hence Ranke remarked: " This was agreater revolution than any previous in all history,an entire reversal of principle." 1 It was indeedthe beginning of the democratic epoch.

It is thus from its source in America that thetide of democracy had flowed over the world, nowand then retreating, leaving islands and floodedareas, making perilous shoals and shallows, buton the whole advancing none the less ! The" rights of man," already demanded by the con-gress of the twelve colonies (October 14th, 1774)travelled round the world. Wherever primitiveand enslaved nations awake to self-consciousness,they assert themselves as " men " and demandthe " rights of man," which are more or lesscopies from those of America . So the liberationmovement in India, unlike that of seventy yearsago, no longer demands the reinstatement of theMogulate, but aims at Democracy . The masses,

1 Ranke. Vberd: EpochenderneuerenGeschichol. Leipzig ,1888, in Weltgeschichte IX Teil 2 Abt S.216.