Pretty far away from the founding era if you ask me. Obviously whatever contamination had been introduced into the system by Rawle, et al, had manifested itself by 1894.
I suppose. Of course it's 119 years closer to that era than you are.
I just noticed another part of the book that might interest you. He writes
Accustomed as we are to the progress of free institutions in civilized lands during the present century, it is difficult to realize that in 1787, at the time this Convention met, the only nations that actually possessed such liberties were England and little Switzerland.But in a footnote to that sentence, he adds
No one claims that the Constitution of the United States is indebted to Switzerland for its characteristics. In the debates of the Philadelphia Convention, Swiss institutions were mentioned only to be criticised. — See Elliot's Debates, V. 201, 208, 236.