Note the usage of the word "Citizen"? Nero here would have us believe we used every characteristic of the English Subject except the word "Subject."
I argue that the usage of the word "Citizen" is itself intended to represent a break from the principles and character of a "Subject."
Where did this word come from? Blackstone and Shakeaspear both use it to describe the inhabitants of a city, and that is exactly the root word for it. "City"-"zens". Denizens of a City.
But Jefferson used it differently. He used it to describe the inhabitants of a Confederated Republic.
Where in the English language is it used in such a manner?
Not in Shakespeare or Blackstone. In English it generally meant the inhabitants of a City.
So where did Jefferson get the idea to apply it to a Country?
Well it seems this member of the Swiss Confederated Republic wrote a book in which he used the word to describe the members of a Free Republic.
Les citoyens sont les membres de la societe civile : lies a cette societe par certains devoirs et soumis a son autorite, ils participent avec egalite a ses avantages. Les naturels, ou indigenes, sont ceux qui sont nes dans le pays, de parens . citoyens
He argued in this book that people had the right to break away from a Monarchy and form a Republic, and that this was a natural right. He wrote this in the Swiss Republic which had done that very thing. They too had broken from a Monarchy and formed a Republic.
This book made the rounds in the Colonies just shortly before the clamor for Independence occurred.
Prior to that, the word "Citizen" was little used, and mostly mean the inhabitants of a City. At least in English it did.
So something caused Jefferson to toss the word "Subject" and to replace it with the word "Citizen." I argue that it was the influence of that Book, because that book is also the only book in the world at the time that argued for the right to independence.
That book more or less kicked off our revolution.