Written constitutions were a novel American innovation without European precedent

Evidence

The resolution on independent governments, when issued with Adams’s preamble, introduced an element into American politics that would have global impact: written constitutions. At the time, political entities from tribes and states to kingdoms and empires functioned without written constitutions. Typically, they had formed organically out of a people, group, or powerful individual. Leaders might rule by divine right, set traditions, military might, or common consent, but rarely under formal constitutions. The so-called constitution of England remained unwritten and a matter of uncertain definition, while the few republics of Europe, like Switzerland and Venice, persisted by custom rather than constitutions. Yet each of the American colonies existed by virtue of a written charter or patent from the king or Parliament that more or less fixed its geographic extent, its internal political structure, and the rights of its people. — Edward J. Larson, Declaring Independence, 168

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to a legal-constitutional course theme: the shift from organic/customary government to written, fixed constitutions is the founding institutional break. — connects to: Montesquieu’s separation of powers shaped the American Constitution

Broader Connections

• Montesquieu’s separation of powers shaped the American Constitution #qualifies (0.75)