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The Constitution’s Deep Roots
therefore not only devoted to liberty, but to liberty according to English
ideas and on English principles.’’ They will not rest until they are given
an ‘‘interest in the Constitution’’ and representation in Parliament on an
equal basis with other British subjects. Equal representation, he reminded
the House, is ‘‘the ancient constitutional policy of this kingdom,’’ and
without it there can be no equity or justice in taxing the colonies. Blinded
by power, believing they could crush the American insurgents, Lord
North and his ministers, as well as most members of Parliament, ignored Burke and his small circle of Whig supporters. Within weeks, the
first shots of the war were fired at Lexington and Concord. History, of
course, proved Burke right, and as a piece of political and constitutional
wisdom his famous Speech on Conciliation has endured down to our time.
The Common Law Tradition
Most of the delegates to the Philadelphia Convention, active in colonial
affairs before the Revolution, understood not only the British government of the North American colonies, but also the British legal system;
some had occupied public office before the Americans declared their independence. With few exceptions, the fifty-five delegates had paid close
attention to the eighteenth-century Constitution of Britain and to English
law; and about half of them had been judges or lawyers who were deeply
read in Sir William Blackstone’s monumental treatise Commentaries on the
Laws of England. A great compendium of learning on constitutional principles, the rights of Englishmen, and the laws of property, the Commentaries were based on Blackstone’s lectures at Oxford University. They soon
became the bible of t HY