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The United States of AmericaThe United States of America, born of bloodshed and popular revolution, has been called by some the "first new nation." Unlike any other nation in the history of mankind, it was a nation whose freedom had been won by the people and its new government derived its powers from and was accountable to the people. And while the Declaration of Independence is the most famous statement of these beliefs, the state constitutions of the day were equally powerful and eloquent in conveying the new American political creed. Pennsylvania's Constitution of 1776, for example, declared:That all power being originally inherent in, and consequently derived from the people: therefore all officers of government, whether legislative or executive, are their trustees and servants, and at all times accountable to them.3 And the 1780 Massachusetts Constitution asserted that: The body politic is formed by a voluntary association of individuals; it is a social compact, by which the whole people covenants with each citizen, and each citizen with the whole people that all shall be governed by certain laws for the common good.4 These were not mere words, but rather the firmly held doctrines of the political system the new nation embraced. Having won a war to defend these principles, all that remained was to see if the new nation could govern herself. 3.Donald S. Lutz, A Preface to American Political Theory (Lawrence, Kansas: University of Kansas Press, 1992), 73. 4.ibid., 73.
 
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