At first, during the period of America's colonization and her controversy with England,
and her affirmation and establishment of her programme of political principles, the great
national work of the disunited provinces was a struggle for local self-government against
despotic centralization beyond the sea. It was an effort against the vicarious rule of the
middle ages, which allowed the people no power in the State, the laity none in the Church,
the servant none in the family. It was a great effort-mainly unconscious-in favor of the
direct government of each State by itself, of the whole people by the whole people; a national
protest against Theocracy -the subordination of man in religious affairs to the accident of
his history; Monarchy, the subordination of the mass of men to a single man; Aristocracy,
the subordination of the many to the few, of the weak to the strong; yes, in part also against
Despotocracy, the subordination of the slave who toils to the master that enjoys - in their
rights they were equal. This forced men to look inward at the natural rights of man; out-
ward at the general development thereof in history. It led to the attempt to establish a
Democracy, which, so far as Measures are concerned, is the government of all, for all, by
all; so far as moral Principle is concerned, it is the enactment of God's Justice into human
laws.
One day the North will rise in her majesty, and put Slavery under our feet, and then we
shall extend the area of freedom. The blessing of Almighty God will come down upon the
noblest people the world ever saw-who have triumphed over Theocracy, Monarchy, Aris-
tocracy, Despotocracy, and have got a Democracy - a government of all, for all, and by all
-a Church without a Bishop, a State without a King, a Community without a Lord, and a
Family without a Slave. - THE NEBRASKA QUESTION: DISCOURSE BY THEODORE PARKER,
FEBRUARY 12, 1854.