SC - Language (was: .food riddle and query)

[cclark@vicon.net]

Erika Thomenius wrote:
>ANYway, while the Iroquois supplied the Founding Fathers with a good chunk 
>of the basis for the Constitution, ...

I doubt it. As I understand it, "the" Constitution was based on the state
constitutions (the most immediate inspiration for which was the need to
codify operating procedures already in use), and on a study of the
foundations and methods of government in various European republics. The
state constitutions, having been made in haste to deal with a crisis, must
have been based primarily on English law (including laws pertaining to city
governments, corporations, etc., not just colonial government) because that
was what most people in the new state governments knew. Aside from the laws
of England and of some European republics, the other main inspiration for
the U. S. Federal Constitution was Enlightenment political theory.

The notion that American government was learned from the Iroquois is
fashionable, but does not seem to have much basis in fact. Similaritites
between those governments are more likely due to parallel evolution.

Alex Clark/Henry of Maldon

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