I went looking for the original source where there was reference to the “ancient constitutions” referring to the constitutions of the colonies and perhaps of the ancient republics. The only source I could find was the Virginia (Stamp Act) Resolves http://www.constitution.org/bcp/vir_res1765.htm where there is reference to the ancient colony and ancient constitution which, by context, is obviously referring to Virginia. Is there a place where the founders referred to the ancient constitutions referring to all the various independent constitutions?
The term “ancient constitutions” is primarily a reference to the Magna Charta and the unwritten British Constitution including the English Bill of Rights, not the colonial charters, though as I discussed in the early lectures those early colonial charters were intended to govern the domestic concerns of the colonists.
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