American liberalism was introduced to the world with the writing of the United States’ Constitution in 1786. It argued the right of the individual to equality before the law, self-government, and economic opportunity. It is not the conventional rag-a-muffin domestic argument between conservative and liberal at election time. The liberalism I write of is the very basis of this country. The United States of America includes numerous collections of different heritages, cultures, and varied communities. We are one because of this concept of liberalism. It is our past, our present, and our future.
This is the 800th commemoration of Magna Carta (Great Charter). It is a distant document written on sheep skin; but we drape its sinewy shreds about the flag of the United States and cling to its ideals. Why? It is the cornerstone of both the unwritten constitution of the British and the American constitution.
Legally it is true the king, or government, has all the power and owns all the land (eminent domain). When did Americans gain civil and legal rights that put limits on that government? How did we gain the rule of law, with personal and property rights protected, so necessary for a free and democratic society to function?
A review of Magna Carta, agreed to by King John of England in 1215, and sealed for the first time by the guardians of ten year old Henry III, will explain the development of American liberalism of today. The components of liberty—a democratic-republican form of government and personal property rights must include several guarantees. These led to an emphasis on the individual and constitutionally guaranteed protections from an abusive and arbitrary government with the powers of a king.
If the king/governmental leaders, must obey the law; then it is the law, not the leader, which is superior. John guaranteed, on behalf of himself and all future monarchs, to all freemen and their heirs the following rights.
First he granted equality to all under the law. Not only was the law above the king but the rule of law, provided “due process,” that is the rules and regulations of arrest and trial. Specific provisions, such as witness testimony, defendants allowed to face his accusers and witnesses, and a speedy trial provided by the government, before a jury of his peers, all guarantee the innocence of an individual until the government proved him guilty. These protections are found in the Constitution, and the 5th, 6th, 8th and 14th Amendments. Most important of all, Magna Carta guarantees the writ of habeas corpus as granted in clause 39, “No free man shall be seized or imprisoned, or stripped of his rights or possessions, or outlawed or exiled, or deprived of his standing in any way, nor will we proceed with force against him, or send others to do so, except by the lawful judgment of his equals or by the law of the land.” This is reiterated in the Constitution’s fourth, fifth, sixth, eighth, and fourteenth amendments. The trial must proceed through regular procedure. Government may not arbitrarily take money or other private property without a conviction.
If the law is superior, then the individual is secure in person and property. The essence of democracy is equality before the law.
The second component of a liberal government is the guarantee of self-government, the people will elect the governmental representatives to determine policy. Regular elections provide a means by which the public can change governmental philosophy or policy.
Magna Carta promised a legislature, ultimately over the centuries, equal in power to the monarch. The commitment was made to all freemen (aristocracy, clergy, the few farmers who could afford to buy their freedom), as more and more of the population gained freedom, they fell under the protections offered.
The promise is found in reference to a “common council (Clause 12) to determine how much to pay the king each year for the use of his land (remember, the king owns all the land—think of it as property taxes.). This led eventually to the argument of “no taxation without representation.”
In 1295, urban leaders, whose towns also had pay for the use of the king’s land, were invited to be present at the common council. After the aristocratic business was complete, the town could argue about how much the crown could expect in taxes. The middle-class eventually became part of the legislature.
Parliament argued if it had control of the country’s revenue through determination of taxes, then Parliament, not the king, had control of the national treasury. If the king wanted national monies, he had to go to Parliament for approval just as the president, today, must gain approval of Congress before spending national treasury.
The importance of regular elections for government was explained by Abraham Lincoln in his First Inaugural Address, as the only method for leaders to know what the public wants. “A majority, held in restraint by constitutional checks, and limitations, and always changing easily, with deliberate changes of popular opinions and sentiments, is the only true sovereign of a free people.”
The third component of liberalism is the protection of private property. Three times Magna Carta assure all in England if the king took “corn or other movable goods from any man without immediate payment” (Clause 28), “horses or carts” (Clause 30), or “wood for our castle,” (Clause 31) there would be immediate compensation. The 5th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution states “nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation,” thus protecting private property. Magna Carta also encourages commerce through the standardization of weights and measures in England (Clause 35). This guarantee was repeated in the Articles of Confederation (1778) and the constitution (1786).
The protections of economic opportunity and private property for the individual leads that person to be invested in what the government is doing. That person will vote, and if so motivated, will run for office.
Liberalism means if the individual is willing to work, he or she should keep their gains without fear of governmental usurpation. Herbert Hoover, in his “Philosophy of Rugged Individualism,” 1928, explained, “Liberalism is a force truly of the spirit, a force proceeding from the deep realization that economic freedom cannot be sacrificed if political freedom is to be preserved.”
Magna Carta was successful because it is flexible. It remains the cornerstone of the English constitution It failed in its objective, to preserve the feudal society based on the knight, the goal of the rebels who fought against John. It did succeed in the development of monetary economic forces that were quickly moving through England. The middle class, with its emphasis on the individual, was elbowing its way to the forefront of political and economic life. These people were more interested in economic opportunity than in defending castles. As they gained their freedom they were welcomed under the protective umbrella of guaranteed liberties.
John was not eager to toss away his power, but the rebels made clear, either he agreed to the liberties or he died. John decided to agree, but within months he had sent agents to ask the Pope to dissolve the agreement he was forced to sign under duress. True, he was threatened with his life and true, even in that day, a contract signed under duress was null and void. Innocent III immediately sent an envoy with notice Magna Carta was to be nullified under threat of excommunication. Even though England was under the Church influence at that time, the urge to continue to live with the liberties gained was too important. Magna Carta was not renounced. Liberalism began its centuries-long movement to enhance the common man.
As Englishmen traveled to Virginia in 1607, James I guaranteed them all the rights and liberties of Magna Carta. Each of the other twelve colonial charters was granted the same rights. Limited government and individual liberties continued to be the primary colonial considerations for the next 150 years. Colonials elected their legislative deputies, paid their taxes to the colonial legislatures, worked their farms, and when they died, passed the wealth of their work on to their children.
American colonials knew their political and their property rights well. As in England, at least once a year Magna Carta was read aloud in every village so all knew their liberties.
By the time the constitution, with its emphasis on separation of powers as well as checks and balances, was signed and ratified by the colonial constitutional conventions, Americans were well versed in their individual political guarantees.
In the United States of America the political power resides in the people. That explains the tremendous emphasis we have always placed on the responsibility of the individual.
The specific guarantees of Magna Carta have, over the years, been re-legislated and made more pertinent to modern Great Britain. Americans have chosen to maintain those guarantees in the Constitution. As you read the Constitution I think you’ll be surprised to learn how much economic, political, and legal rights we gained from it. Magna Carta is still one of the most significant documents ever written.
-End-
Note:
Magna Carta was an agreement between John and his nobility and clergy limiting the king’s power in 1215. The earliest know engrossment (not a copy since each of the nearly 300 written was by hand in Chancellery Script) in the formal manner of a public document in 1217. John’s son, ten-year old Henry III, sealed an agreement through his two regents, the papal legate, Cardinal Guala, and the earl of Pembroke, William Marshall . The document would have been sealed, not signed, since the simple intent of the monarch made it a valid agreement. They did so to solidify Henry’s monarchy and their own power.
Oxford University currently holds four of the seventeen known engrossments, three from 1217 and one from 1225 In the opinion of Sarah Thomas, Bodeian Libraries, University of Oxford, since no engrossment of Magna Carta 1215 has been found, it was not written and not sealed, It was an agreement on a hand-shake.
The clauses, or chapters, were not numbered as they are today. The hand was even although Medievalists believe it was written quickly so the documents could be sent around the country. The black ink is now a brown, but it is perfectly legible, if you can read thirteenth century Latin.
Sources:
Hoover, Herbert. “Rugged Individualism Campaign Speech.” Digital History,
ID #. 1334 Digital History:
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?smtID=3&psid=1334.
Holt, J.C. “The Making of Magna Carta.” The English Historical Review
No. CCLXXXIV—July 1957, pp. 410-420. http://JSTOR.org.libraryaccess.sdmesa.edu.
Hoyt, Robert S. Europe in the Middle Ages. Harcourt, Brace, & Wold, Inc. Chicago: 1957, pp. 445-461.
Magna Carta. The British Library. http://www.bl.uk/magna-carta.
“The Magna Carta” National Archives and Records Administration.
http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/featured documents/magnacarta/.
Painter, Sidney. “Magana Carta.” The American Historical Review. Vol 53, No. 1 (Oct.-Dec.), 1947. http://www.jstor.org.libraryaccess.sdmesa.edu/stable/1843678?.
Thomas, Sarah, Bodlian Libraries, University of Oxford. Seminar and engrossment of Magna Carta 1217. April 2011. Scripps Research Institute, San Diego, California.
Copyright 2015 Janet Newlan Bower
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