The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 3, July 1899 - April, 1900 Page: 169
294 p. : ill., maps ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Spanish Source of the Mexican Constitution. 169
stitutional principles to the attention of the framers of the Spanish
constitution. But there is still a third source to which reference
must be made. The greatest political influence of that generation
had come from the French revolution, in which the French at first,
as the Spaniards were then trying to do, had overthrown despotism
and had established a constitutional monarchy on the basis of the
sovereignty of the people. One need simply quote the third article
of the Spanish Constitution to show this French influence. "Sov-
ereignty resides essentially in the nation; in consequence whereof it
alone possesses the right of making its fundamental laws." In the
French constitutions of 1791 and 1795 (not the radical constitution
of 1793) we can find the general order of titles in the Spanish con-
stitution, the plan of numbering clauses, the method of amending,
and such ideas as the threefold division of powers, a unicameral leg-
islature, indirect elections, the system of substitutes, the prohibition
of continuous terms of office, the method of veto, the individual
responsibility of each member of the cabinet to the legislative body,
freedom of the press, free public and liberal education, and equality
in civil and political rights. These ideas, to. be sure, are in part of
English origin; but the student of modern political institutions will
recognize two important sources of political theory, the one arising
from the English constitution and finding its best exponent perhaps
in American institutions; the other springing from the French rev-
olution, recasting old institutions, formulating new theories, and
sending forth broad lines of influence throughout all the Romance
nations and their colonies.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 3, July 1899 - April, 1900, periodical, 1900; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101015/m1/179/: accessed April 24, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.