el; and yet there is a world-wide difference between
the English model and these American copies. The earlier document
enunciated the rights of English subjects, the recent infringement of
which made it desirable that they should be reasserted in convincing
form. The American documents asserted rights which the colonists
generally had enjoyed and which they declared to be "governing
principles for all peoples in all future times."

But the greater significance of these State Constitutions is to be found
in their quality as working instruments of government. There was
indeed little difference between the old colonial and the new State
Governments. The inhabitants of each of the Thirteen States had been
accustomed to a large measure of self-government, and when they took
matters into their own hands they were not disposed to make any radical
changes in the forms to which they had become accustomed. Accordingly
the State Governments that were adopted simply continued a framework of
government almost identical with that of colonial times. To be sure, the
Governor and other appointed officials were now elected either by the
people or the legislature, and so were ultimately responsible to the
electors instead of to the Crown; and other changes were made which in
the long run might prove of far-reaching and even of vital significance;
and yet the machinery of government seemed the same as that to which
the people were already accustomed. The average man was conscious of no
difference at all in the working of the Government under the new order.
In fact, in Connecticut and Rhode Island, the most democratic of all
the colonies, where the people had been privileged to elect their own
governors, as well as legislatures, no change whatever was necessary and
the old charters were continued as State Constitutions down to 1818 and
1842, respectively.

To one who has been accustomed to believe that the separation from a
monarchical government meant the establishment of democracy, a reading
of these first State Constitutions is likely to cause a rude shock.
A shrewd English observer, traveling a generation later in the United
States, went to the root of the whole matter in remarking of the
Americans that, "When their independence was achieved their mental
condition was not instantly changed. Their deference for rank and for
judicial and legislative authority continued nearly unimpaired."* They
might declare that "all men are created equ