[Footnote 27: _Recueil des loix constitutives des colonies anglaises, confederees sous la denomination d'Etats-Unis de l'Amerique-Septentrionale. Dedie a M. le Docteur Franklin. En suisse, chez les libraires associes._] [Footnote 28: _Cf._ Ch. Borgeaud, _Etablissement et revision des constitutions en Amerique et en Europe_, Paris, 1893, p. 27.] [Footnote 29: Especially the exceptional work of James Bryce, _The American Commonwealth_, Vol I, Part II., The State Governments; Boutmy, _Etudes de droit constitutionnel, 2me ed._, Paris, 1895, pp. 83 _et seq._; and Borgeaud, _loc. cit._, pp. 28 _et seq._] [Footnote 30: _The Federal and State Constitutions, Colonial Charters, and other Organic Laws of the United States._ Compiled by Ben: Perley Poore. Two vols., Washington, 1877. Only the most important documents of the colonial period are included.] [Footnote 31: This is not quite clear even to the best French authority on American history, Laboulaye, as is evident from his treatment of the subject, _Histoire des Etats-Unis_, II, p. 11.] [Footnote 32: _Cf. Arch. Parl._, VIII, pp. 461-489.] CHAPTER IV. VIRGINIA'S BILL OF RIGHTS AND THOSE OF THE OTHER NORTH AMERICAN STATES. The Congress of the colonies, which were already resolved upon separation from the mother country, while sitting in Philadelphia issued on May 15, 1776, an appeal to its constituents to give themselves constitutions. Of the thirteen states that originally made up the Union, eleven had responded to this appeal before the outbreak of the French Revolution. Two retained the colonial charters that had been granted them by the English crown, and invested these documents with the character of constitutions, namely, Connecticut the charter of 1662, and Rhode Island that of 1663, so that these charters are the oldest written constitutions in the modern sense.[33] Of the other states Virginia was the first to enact a constitution in the convention which met at Williamsburg from May 6 to June 29, 1776. It was prefaced with a formal "bill of rights",[34] which had been adopted by the convention on the twelfth of June. The author of this document was George Mason, although Madison exercised a decided influence upon the form that was finally adopted.[35] This declaration of Virginia's served as a pattern for all the others, even for that of the Congress of the United States, which was issued three weeks later, and, as is well known, was drawn up by Jefferson, a citizen of Virginia. In the other declarations there were many stipulations formulated somewhat differently, and also many new particulars were added.[36] Express declarations of rights had been formulated after Virginia's before 1789 in the constitutions of Pennsylvania of September 28, 1776, Maryland of November 11, 1776, North Carolina of December 18, 1776, Vermont of July 8, 1777,[37] Massachusetts of March 2, 1780, New Hampshire of October 31, 1783, (in force June 2, 1784.)