Our pride of liberties from English heritage

Btitish Honor Guards unveil the Magna Carta during ceremonies in the U.S. Capitol in Washington. The Magna Carta is the document which gave rise to the development of civil liberties which this country inherited from England. The Magna Carta, is Britain's bicentennia gift to the U.S. (Assiciated Press Photo)

     Some time ago the British government offered to help celebrate the bicentennial of the American Revolution by sending one of the rare original copies of "Magna Carta" or the Great Charter of 1215.
     Many Americans probably wondered why this gesture was being made and what it had to do with the American Revolution.
     Among those better informed, the significance of "Magna Carta" and its relationship to our common Anglo-Saxon heritage of liberty was more fully appreciated.
     At the time of the revolution, Europe as well as the rest of the civilized world was dominated by the notion of divine right monarchy. Most nations were governed by regimes in which power of the king or emperor was theoretically, and sometimes practically, absolute.

Britain exception

     The most important exception to this rule was the Kingdom of Great Britain, Englishmen thought of themselves as free men and tended to look down on other nations -- France, Spain, Russia and the rest -- chiefly because they tolerated repressive authoritarian regimes in state and church.
     The English talked with pride of their "ancient liberties" and looked back over half a millennium of struggles to achieve the freedom they believed was theirs.
      The great documentary landmark in this struggle was the charter the barons wrestled from tyrannical King John at Runnymede in 1215. In this charter and extensions of it the politically-conscious Englishman saw protection of his personal liberty and guarantee against arbitrary taxation.
     Such liberties were not achieved by "Magna Carta" once and for all. There were many later monarchs who tried to violate both the letter and the spirit of this basic document. Sometimes they were able to establish absolute rule for a time, sometimes they were successfully resisted. In this process the most important institution was the English Parliament, made up not only of the hereditary House of Lords, but also of the elected House of Commons.
     The English who settled along the Atlantic seaboard in the 17th century brought with them the heritage of this long struggle for political freedom.
     They had not been content with the way things were in England and had left because of religious or other forms of persecution. however, they brought with them notions of law and participation in government considerably more advanced than those in other countries.

Overthrew King Charles

     In the middle years of that first century of Anglo-Saxon colonization, a violent conflict occurred in England over King Charles' effort to reinstate the divine right of kings. This resulted in civil war and ended with the beheading of Charles I. however, the British fell under control of Oliver Cromwell and a military dictatorship.
     During this period more serious-minded Englishmen left and came to New England to salvage as much liberty as they could.
     A generation later Englishmen shed the yoke of divine right imposed by King James II by arranging for the "invasion" to England by James' Dutch son-in-law, William of Orange. "This glorious Revolution of 1688" led to a new constitutional document called the "Bill of Rights", limiting power of the sovereign by law and authority of Parliament.
     Looking back upon the men of 1776 in the American colonies, it should be remembered they had been brought up in traditions of this extended struggle for liberty in England.
     If the term "revolution" had any precise connotation for them, it was most likely related to the revolution of 1688.

Heirs of revolution

     Our founding fathers were heirs of this earlier revolution. When Jefferson and associates composed the Declaration of Independence in 1776, they were strongly influenced by the form and language of the English Bill of Rights.
     Just as the English document accused King James of "keeping a standing army within this kingdom in time of peace without consent of parliament," so our own Declaration in 1776 accused King George III of having "kept in the colonies, in time of peace, standing armies without the consent of our legislature."
     The later document contains clear echoes of the earlier, for the men in Philadelphia, no matter how strongly they opposed the power of the British crown, could not separate themselves from English traditions of freedom.

Almost as in days of the colonies, in some rural areas women don't actively participate in government. Here on town caucus day in the Town of Delmar, Chippewa County, men gather around the "old barrel stove" to discuss town politics.

Defense of heritage

     In their eyes they were acting in defense of their English heritage. Not a few British historians would come to acknowledge the American Revolution had done much to preserve liberties in England herself.
     So Americans have every right to welcome to these shores the fragile piece of parchment on which, seven and a half centuries ago, and English king once conceded that he must rule according to the law and with respect for the rights of free men.
     Our own Revolution was the beginning of a new era in the struggle for human liberty, but it did not come suddenly. Rather it build upon a foundation that had been slowly and painfully constructed by innumerable men and women in earlier times and in many parts of the world.
     But most especially the roots of American freedom were to be found in that unique island off the coast of Europe -- an island with which, 200 years ago, our nation was at war.
     

-- Howard Lutz
UWEC Dept. of History

Extracted from the Eau Claire Leader Telegram
Special Publication, Our Story 'The Chippewa Valley and Beyond', published 1976
Used with permission.