History of the Constitution: The Aftermath of American Revolution

Book excerpt: This edition is a Pulitzer Prize awarded history which deals with legal and political aspects of the American Revolution. The American Revolution began and ended with the political act or acts by which British sovereignty over the thirteen English colonies in North America was definitely repudiated. All else was nothing but cause or effect of this act. Of the causes, some were economic, some social, others constitutional. But the Revolution itself was none of these; not social, nor economic, nor even constitutional; it was a political act, and such an act cannot be both constitutional and revolutionary; the terms are mutually exclusive. So long as American opposition to alleged grievances was constitutional it was in no sense revolutionary. The moment it became revolutionary it ceased to be constitutional. When was that moment reached?_x000D_ The Problem _x000D_ The Precedents_x000D_ The Realm and the Dominions_x000D_ The Precedents_x000D_ Natural and Fundamental Law_x000D_ Taxation and Virtual Representation_x000D_ The Charters