[inquest]

To independently, without contemporary analysis, study the reasons for each of the Constitution's clauses we should read the Common Law, the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation and the first thirteen State Constitutions.

I'd recommend adding Blackstone's Commentaries and Montesquieu's The Spirit of the Laws to that list. The Founders drew very heavily from both of those texts.

[TimTyler]

Re: "I'd recommend adding Blackstone's Commentaries and Montesquieu's The Spirit of the Laws to that list. The Founders drew very heavily from both of those texts. "

I agree, and there are countless other sources the Founding Generation used, but the Founder’s constitutional intent and meaning, in respect for all they learned, are promulgated in their Constitutions and the Declaration of Independence. We may agree or disagree with their sources, and their conclusions, but we cannot disagree with the words they put into those documents. We are defining the Constitution's in the words of its authors, not those of Montesquieu, Locke or Adams. For an untrammeled view of the Founder's meaning and intent we must first examine the documents they provided, for that purpose, in their time, in their words, not those written by others before 1776 or after 1791.