But to the conservative of that time it seemed as if radical and revolutionary changes were taking place.

The bills of rights declared, "That no men, or set of men, are entitled to exclusive or separate emoluments or privileges from the community, but in consideration of public services." Property qualifications and other restrictions on officeholding and the exercise of the suffrage were lessened.

Four States declared in their constitutions against the entailment of estates, and primogeniture was abolished in aristocratic Virginia.

There was a fairly complete abolition of all vestiges of feudal tenure in the holding of land, so that it may be said that in this period full ownership of property was established.

The further separation of church and state was also carried out.
Certainly leveling influences were at work, and the people as a whole had moved one step farther in the direction of equality and democracy, and it was well that the Revolution was not any more radical and revolutionary than it was.