As  such,  it  will  live  in  the  history,  and  be  perpetuated
in  the  traditions,  of  the  American  people.  But  neither
the  Sage  of  Monticello,  nor  his  most  ardent  admirer,
ever  claimed  that  he  was  the  sole  originator  of  the  great
movement  to  which  the  Declaration  of  ?T6  gave  form  and
substance.  Its  germs  were  planted  in  ten  thousand
hearts,  long  before  the  resolutions  of  Patrick  Henry
concerning  the  Stamp  Act  were  offered,  or  his  eloquent
voice  had  sounded  the  alarm  ;  its  hopes  and  its  impulses
throbbed  in  ten  thousand  bosoms  long  before  the  chimes
of  the  old  State-house  bell  in  Philadelphia  proclaimed
"  liberty  throughout  this  land,  unto  all  the  inhabitants
thereof ;"  and  they  only  waited  "  the  hour  and  the  man"
to  call  them  into  action,  and  give  them  expression.
Occasions  were  not  wanting,  when  the  intolerance  of
oppression,  and  the  stern  resistance  to  tyranny,  which
were  characteristic  of  the  colonists,  found  utterance  in
something  more  than  mere  words  and  protestations.
