Continuities?

Late in 1774, the First Continental Congress met on a matter of great importance. The decisions they made eventually led to the start of the American War of Independence. Together, these representatives of North America’s British colonies wrote a Declaration of Rights and Grievances that demanded better treatment from Britain’s King George III. They demanded the liberties they believed were guaranteed by “the principles of the English Constitution, and several charters.” These included:

• freedom from taxation without representation
• the right to a trial by a jury of peers
• protection of life, liberty, and property

These phrases should be familiar to anyone who knows a bit about the American Constitution and the development of democracy in the United States. They were all taken from British legal and political documents. So, would it be fair to say that American democracy is based on British ideas of liberty and rights?

Magna Carta

The United Kingdom of Great Britain was made up of a formal union of the kingdoms of England and Scotland in 1707, and also included Wales and Ireland. Although the Continental Congress cited Britain’s “constitution,” Britain had no actual constitutional document. Rather, it had a number of “charters or compacts” between the king and various parts of the population.

The first of these documents was the Magna Carta. Confusingly, there are several versions of this “Great Charter” (the translation for the Latin words Magna Carta). The most important was signed by King John on June 15, 1215, when he was forced to sign by his nobles.

The Magna Carta guaranteed certain rights and freedoms, mostly to the nobles. The nobles were unhappy that both John and his father, Henry II, had taxed them and taken away a lot of their power. Henry II had been too powerful a king for the nobles to resist. But, John was a weaker king, so the nobles were able to force him to agree to some reforms. These reforms limited the taxes they could be forced to pay and promised them swift and fair access to justice in any legal matter.

This is exactly the kind of stuff you find in the US Constitution and Bill of Rights.

Note these comparisons:

So, some of the rights that the founders of the United States would emphasize were indeed found in the Magna Carta. But remember, these rights largely applied only to important and powerful men in thirteenth-century England. There were a few mentions of serfs and peasants, but they were very limited indeed.

English Civil War

A second important event in British history was the English Civil War of 1642-1651. This war was fought between those who supported the king, Charles I, and those who supported the English Parliament, a semi-elected body. A war like this, between a king and a parliament, can easily be seen as a model for the American War of Independence. After all, it was a fight for democracy and constitutionalism.

There is another similarity between the two wars: The English Civil War was mostly caused by anger over taxes. What angered many people was that the taxes had been imposed by the king without the support of Parliament. (Sounds a lot like the American Revolutionary demand of “no taxation without representation.”)

The English Civil War gave rise to a number of groups that were very democratic. One of them was the Levellers, who were radical supporters of the Parliamentary side. They called for:

• rule by the people (a phrase that would come back in the American Revolution)
• a widespread right to vote
• religious tolerance

But, the Levellers did not win this conflict. First, even many of their allies did not agree with their radical ideas. But second, in 1660, Charles I’s son—Charles II—was restored to the throne.

Glorious Revolution

Now for the third event in English political history that is often invoked as important to the ideas of American revolutionaries: the Glorious Revolution of 1688. This was a bloodless revolution that replaced James II, Charles II’s son, with a new King and Queen—William of Orange and his wife, Mary.

The Glorious Revolution took place partly because James II suspended Parliament and tried to rule all by himself. This unpopular move got him replaced. Then, the rebels who put William and Mary on the throne didn’t want this kind of thing to happen again. So, they got William and Mary to sign a document called the Bill of Rights. This English Bill of Rights of 1689 had a lot of similarities to the later American Constitution and Bill of Rights a century later.

For example:

But some might argue that the Glorious Revolution was not really revolutionary. It was mostly organized by a group of wealthy men who replaced one king with another. The new ruler, King William, was no democrat. He merely agreed to provide a few rights for others in order to win the throne.

Limitations of the argument

It is possible to argue that there was no tradition of democratic rule in England during the American Revolution. Although the American revolutionaries imagined that the Magna Carta had been an important democratic document, it really just recognized the power of the nobles. The English Civil War had ended with a restored monarchy. The English Bill of Rights was very limited.

Indeed, the English and Scottish political thinkers who most inspired the Americans were those who had lost in these conflicts. They were the opponents of the monarchy who called for near-total democracy. They called for local rule, for rights for anyone who owned land, and for religious tolerance. But, these thinkers were not in power and back in Britain, their work was not that widely read.

However, these opponents of the British kings were very popular in the American colonies. Pamphlets written by Thomas Paine and other American rebels cited the Levellers and other radicals.

Why were the radical ideas of the British opposition so popular in Britain’s North American colonies? Unlike England, the American colonies had lots of people owning land, instead of just a few. Also, they were far away from the British government and had to make decisions on their own. As a result, they had elected local governments to make decisions at least on local matters. Finally, many different religious groups lived together in the colonies. All this made the ideas of the radical writers very appealing.

This isn’t to say that the English legal and political tradition wasn’t important to the American Revolution. It’s just that the radicals who had the most influence on American laws and documents had little power in Britain.