For example, King Solomon prays at the dedication of the temple:
"That thine eyes may be open unto the supplication ... of _thy
people_ Israel, to hearken unto them in all that they call for
unto thee. For thou didst separate them from among _all the
people_ of the earth, to be thine inheritance." (1 Kings viii,
52, 53.)
Here we have both the singular and plural senses of the same word--_one
people_, Israel, and _all the people of the earth_--in two consecutive
sentences. In "the people of the earth," the word _people_ is used
precisely as it is in the expression "the people of the United States"
in the preamble to the Constitution, and has exactly the same force and
effect. If in the latter case it implies that the people of
Massachusetts and those of Virginia were mere fractional parts of one
political community, it must in the former imply a like unity among the
Philistines, the Egyptians, the Assyrians, Babylonians, and Persians,
and all other "people of the earth," except the Israelites. Scores of
examples of the same sort might be cited if it were necessary.[42]
In the Declaration of Independence we find precisely analogous instances
of the employment of the singular form for both singular and plural
senses--"one people," "a free people," in the former, and "the good
people of these colonies" in the latter. Judge Story, in the excess of
his zeal in behalf of a theory of consolidation, bases upon this last
expression the conclusion that the assertion of independence was the act
of "_the whole people_ of the united colonies" as a unit; overlooking or
suppressing the fact that, in the very same sentence, the colonies
declare themselves "free and independent _States_"--not a free and
independent _state_--repeating the words "independent States" three
times.
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