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1776] State constitutions. 237 The subject cannot be particularly entered into in these pages; though it will come up again in dealing with the formation of the Constitution. For the rest, it need only be stated that the Continental Congresses, beginning in the year 1774, and hence often called the Revo- lutionary Congresses, were composed of delegates chosen by the various colonial or State legislatures, and meeting in Philadelphia; that they sat, in secret, as one chamber; that the voting was by colonies or States, each having one vote; and that they carried on the war and conducted the more general affairs of the country in such way as they could. (ii) STATE GbvERNMENrs. The contention of the colonies as colonies failed, because there were necessarily two parties to it, and the other party refused. When the time came that there was but one party to the business, when each colony or State had to deal with itself only, what before had been found impossible was effected without difficulty. The new articles of govern- ment of the colonies and States some of which were adopted during the colonial period, in hope of reconciliation are exemplifications of the late Whig theory of government. Difficulties were to arise later in fixing upon a general government in the Articles of Confederation, and later still, in the Constitution of the United States; for the present the Continental Congress had but to advise the formation of new govern- ments, and it was done. If the first venture failed, as it did fail in one or two States, the second succeeded easily. The constitutions of seven of the States are accompanied by formal Bills or Declarations of Right; the constitutions of four, New York, Delaware, South Carolina, and Georgia, are not; but of these four the Constitutions of all but Delaware are introduced by preambles of greater or less length, reciting the causes which led to the formation of the new governments. Rhode Island and Connecticut continued under the form of government created by their colonial charters, those two colonies having retained to the last full control over their govern- ments and governors. They therefore did not provide themselves with Bills of Right or new constitutions. The first of the Bills of Right was that of Virginia, which, fol- lowed shortly afterwards by the State constitution, was published on June 12, 1776, three weeks before independence was declared. This Bill of Rights may be considered as furnishing a general model for the articles of the other States, or at least the substance of what went into them. It contains sixteen articles, setting forth the general principles or theory on which the government of the State, in the ac- companying constitution, was framed. The first section, anticipating somewhat the language of the Declaration of Independence, declares