The American colonists had been trained to rational conceptions of freedom, by lessons of wisdom and sagacity read them by their Puritan fathers, and by the experience in self-government, afforded during a century and a half of enjoyment of a large share of political privileges, granted by the mother country.

They were thus prepared to lay deep and strong the foundations of an enlightened government, which, equally removed from the extremes of despotism on the one hand, and anarchy on the other, and granting its subjects the exercise of their right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," shall endure through ages to come.

But the people of France, shut up in darkness during centuries of misrule, passed at a step from abject servitude to unlimited freedom.

They were unprepared for this violent transition.

Their conceptions of liberty were of the most extravagant description.