ABSTRACT
The subject of this conclusion is the meaning of America as interpreted by one person. Which America? Not Latin America or Central America or Canada or Mexico, but specifically the United States of America. Indeed, by 1776 the Americans had arrived at a new meaning of the term constitution. It could no longer be understood, British style, as the historical, practical, and actual "organization of power developed through custom, prescription, and precedent" over a long development. The American version, seen in the elaboration of constitutionalism, expressed something impossibly new, something profoundly rejective of the historical conception of authority as descending from the Crown and its officials. These ideas were shared by the leaders of both the American and French Revolutions. Both groups were influenced by the Enlightenment. The United States of America has become the bearer as well as the heir of Western civilization and its multiple meanings and responsibilities.
