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PaperclipPerfector  22hr ago (text post)   2913 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of March 30, 2026

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Certainly the overall course of the Revolution would seem to undermine any claim that the rebels meant to be loyal to English law or tradition, and later on in the Revolution they seem to be very conscious that they are doing something new and without precedent.

And yet after victory despite instituting a political system (separation of powers) that was in direct contravention of the British system (parliamentary supremacy) they at the same time left continuity English legal system. The majority of States adopted English Common Law as the presumptive source except when explicitly altered, in Constitutions contemporaneous with the Founding:

  • Maryland: "That the inhabitants of Maryland are entitled to the common law of England"
  • Delaware: "The common law of England, as-well as so much of the statute law as has been heretofore adopted in practice in this State, shall remain in force, unless they shall be altered by a future law of the legislature"
  • New Jersey: "That the common law of England, as well as so much of the statute law, as have been heretofore practiced in this Colony, shall still remain in force, until they shall be altered by a future law of the Legislature"

And so forth.

In a sense I think that, in a macrohistorical sense, the American Revolution is most significant as a kind of prototype for, and a contributing cause of, the French Revolution.

Indeed. But they were dealing with very different substrates! France had no centuries long tradition of representative democracy and rule of law. So you're right, the US revolution was more of a secession.

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