Quote:
Originally Posted by Joe Obenberger
Helter Skelter - They talked about it, a little bit anyway.
We did it. And we were the first in the world to do so.
Like it or not.
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Nobody is disputing we did it, and many Americans have tried to ignore and challenge, if not overturn, it since; I don't believe for one second the Constitution would be written even remotely the same way today.
We were lucky enough to be able to start with a clean slate, allowing us to take the very best pre-existing beliefs and laws on personal rights and freedoms, and use them as the foundation for the country. As British Prime Minister Gladstone put it:
"As the British Constitution is the most subtle organism which has proceeded from the womb and long gestation of progressive history, so the American Constitution is, so far as I can see, the most wonderful work ever struck off at a given time by the brain and purpose of man."
To write off the democratic ideals and struggles of people in Europe, over preceding centuries, as simply 'talking a little' is risible.
Aside from 'mere' philosophizing, and the Enlightenment influence on the French Revolution, as Media Guy brought up, the Magna Carta, written over
half a millennium before our Revolution, along with Petition Of Right and Bill Of Rights (following England's own Revolution) in the 17th century, along with established English common law, such as habeas corpus, had a huge and undeniable influence on the American Revolution and Constitution/Bill of Rights.
Their history was our history. Like it or not.