Excerpt from The Elements of Constitutional Law I do not mean to say that the convention are entitled to the whole merit of solving this problem; for the human mind, both in this country and in Europe, had for a century previous been gradually preparing for its solution. A great many fortuitous events and circumstances, also, contributed to its solution. It may even be, that the original colonial charters contained some of the sem inal principles of the constitution; these seminal principles may have germinated in the colonial legislatures. The old confedera tion, also, although an abortive attempt to solve the problem, yet contributed essentially to its final solution. All these extrinsic aids the convention had; still it was they who first solved the problem. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.