The words “given personally” bespeak radical liberty. They appear in the Declarations of the Stamp Act Congress, October 7-24, 1765 with regard to consent to taxes.
Nine colonies attended the Congress and the delegates approved the Declaration. Subsequently, six colonies approved the declarations of the Stamp Act Congress.
The organizer of this Congress was James Otis, Jr. He was the father of the revolution. “According to John Adams, American independence was born in the Boston Old Town hall in February of 1761. The twenty-five year old Adams witnessed an impassioned speech given by the thirty-six year old Massachusetts attorney named James Otis, Jr.” (see here.) “Otis had directly challenged the British government. And he did so not with rhetoric of anarchy, nor with rabble-rousing, but with a solid appeal to the Rule of Law.”
Declaration III makes a radical call for Liberty and is consistent with panarchy:
“III. That it is inseparably essential to the Freedom of a People, and the undoubted Right of Englishmen, that no Taxes be imposed on them, but with their own Consent, given personally, or by their Representatives.”
The two words “given personally” have very great importance. To give consent personally to a tax makes government into a subscription service.
In addition, the phrase “a People” differs from “the People”, as used in other documents. This allows scope for many peoples, self-chosen, in the territory of the Colonies.
