British Constitution is the most subtle organism which has
proceeded from progressive history, so the American Constitution is
the most wonderful work ever struck off, at a given time by the
brain and purpose of man."

This assumes that the Constitution sprang, like Minerva, armed
_cap-a-pie,_ from the brain of the American people, whereas it was as
much the result of a slow, laborious, and painful evolution as was the
British Constitution. Probably Gladstone so understood the development
of the American Constitution and recognized that its framing was only
the culmination of an evolution of many years.

When the constitutional struggle between the colonies and the Parliament
became acute, the necessity of a union for a common defence became
imperative. As early as July, 1773, Franklin recommended the "convening
of a General Congress" so that the colonies would act together. His
suggestion was introduced in the Virginia House of Burgesses in May,
1774, and as a result there met in Philadelphia on September 5 of that
year the first Continental Congress, styled by themselves: "The
Delegates appointed by the Good People of these Colonies." Nothing was
further from their purpose than to form a central government or to
separate from England. This Congress only met as a conference of
representatives of the colonies to defend what they conceived to be
their constitutional rights.

Before the second Continental Congress met in the following year, the
accidental clash at Lexington and Concord had taken place, and as the
Congress again re-convened a momentous change had taken place, which
was, in fact, the beginning of the American Commonwealth. The Congress
became by force of circumstances a provisional government, and as such
it might well have claimed plenary powers to meet an immediate exigency.
So indisposed were they to separate from England or to substitute for
its rule that of a new government, that the Continental Congress, when
it then involuntarily took over the government of America, failed to
exercise any adequate power. It remained simply a conference without
real power. Each colony had one vote and the rule of unanimity
prevailed. Even its decisions were largely advisory, for they amounted
to little more than recommendations to the constituent States as to what
measures should be taken. Each colony complied with the recommendation
in its discretion and in its own way. Notwithstanding this fatal lack o