Sources of the Constitution

The underlying principles of the Constitution were not formulated in a day. The three great American charters of liberty contained the fundamental principles of American government: "Bill for establishing religious freedom in Virginia," "Virginia Bill of Rights," and "Declaration of Independence." Before the Constitutional Convention met in Philadelphia, many plans and suggestions were drafted and presented to the convention. In addition to this careful preparation after more than a century of self-government, there were in the convention men of extraordinary natural ability and wide experience, like Washington, Franklin, and Hamilton. There were men who had studied law at the Inner Temple in London, who had been educated in the University of Edinburgh, who had been graduated from American colleges, who had been governors of States, chief justices of supreme courts, and men who had achieved distinction at the bar and in business life. Edmund Burke stated in the House of Commons in March, 1776, that more books of law were going to America than any other kind. Of the 55 members of the Constitutional Convention, 31 were lawyers. Blackstone's Commentaries were taught by Chancellor Wythe in William and Mary College before the Declaration of Independence. John Marshall, Thomas Jefferson, and James Monroe were among his pupils. When our Constitution was written Harvard College (1636) had been sending out, educated young men for just a century and a, half, Willlam and Mary College (1603) had been graduating learned youths for almost a century, Tale College (1701) had been contributing to the education of the people for more than three-quarters of a century, and Princeton (1746) had been teaching for half a century. The people were well prepared for their great endeavor. - Thomas James Norton.