One of the strongest and most persistent elements in national development has been that inheritance of political traditions and usages which the new settlers brought with them.

The residence of the Plymouth settlers in the Netherlands, and the later conquest of the Dutch colonies, had brought the Americans into contact with the singularly wise and free institutions of the Dutch.

In comparison with other men of their time, the Americans were distinguished by the possession of new political and social ideas, which were destined to be the foundation of the American commonwealth.

In 1763 the English were the most powerful nation in the world.

In government as well as in trade a new era came to the colonies in 1763.

Each colony became accustomed to planting new settlements and to claiming new boundaries.