The Constitution of the United States

The Constitution of the United States An Expression of True Civic Rights and Liberty

By Levi Edgar Young, Professor of History, University of Utah

The Constitution of the United States is an expression of civic and political liberty, grown and developed on American soil. It embodies the highest fundamental rights of man the right to worship God according to the dictates of conscience, to speak and write one's principles of interpretation of life's meaning, the right of trial by jury, and the right to take part in the Government under which one lives. The Constitution was the expression of a political philoso- phy of a New Age. The eighteenth century witnessed the reali- zation by man of his own powers and inner light. In all ancient days, and ancient days lasted until the advent of the Govern- ment of the United States, it was held that common man had no right whatever to take part in the government under which he lived. The divine right of kingship was a sacred truth, and no one dared to doubt it. The kings of France and the Stuarts of England had repeatedly said Je suis VEtat." This meant that : '

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all laws must come from the king; must be an expression of his free will. All laws for the people were concessions of the Roy- alty. Ages back in history, the people were beginning to realize that they, too, had rights and privileges. It took many cen- turies for them to come into their rights. And yet one great thought has always been common to man in all stages of social conditions, and this thought is: / am a child of God, blessed with divine light and understanding. In studying the history of — primitive peoples their manners, customs, and beliefs, one will find this statement true. True, in the terrible struggle man is required to make at times for existence, this divine truth is for- gotten, yet when man is fed and clothed, and is part of a social group, he realizes his powers and moral nature. Before the revolution in Europe, man could not rise above his social level. The economic and political habits of the times had prevented his realizing his best self. Yet Christianity had made its way into the world with the eternal message that all are children of God and are endowed with the divine light to know God and to attain life immortal by pursuing truth.

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The society of the centuries between the days of Christ and the dawn of the sixteenth century had fallen into a peculiar economic condition, known as Feudalism. While Feudalism was a social condition of serfdom on one side and aristocracy of wealth on the other, it created a love for government and relig- ion. It did not recognize, however, man as an individual, but man as a part of the state or government. Individual man counted for nothing in his self-realization. He lived and acted only for the good of the State. Now the Reformation was the time when man began a study of common things and to apply the results of his knowledge to the betterment of material conditions of the common man. This naturally resulted in man looking to new ideals in religion. Not that he doubted the divine mission of Jesus Christ, but he doubted the rites and ceremonies that seemed to have little re- lationship to him whom he worshiped. This brought about new forms of worship. Yet the Reformation in Europe was not frought with great religious changes in beliefs and ceremonies, but it was a time when man began to better his economic and political, social, and intellectual conditions. He was beginning to come to a knowledge of his inborn freedom — the freedom that is his by divine right. Into new lands he went. He sought new climes. The Home idea was the one impelling force. Home based on ownership of land. So into the New World he went, and there found a chance to live a new life. It was indeed a new life. He was again born. The land he tilled was his, and to him belonged the results of his work. True, new problems were ever present for solution, but he brought to bear on his problems his highest moral and intellectual character, and solved them. This made him ag- gressive and resourceful, individualistic and inventive. He came gradually to a realization of his powers; he began to develop self-government. In the broad, New World he had a chance to grow. Into this New World the Englishman had brougth with him a knowledge of the fundamental principles of free government. Through the ages England had witnessed in her history a con- tention between her Royal power and the power of the Com- monality. In the eleventh century we find the right of trial by jury, and this together with the right to tax, lodged in the Great Council of the Kingdom, was set down in the Magna Charta, and every king for all future centuries was forced to recognize these rights or be forced from the throne. In the — seventeenth century the two great documents- the Petition of — Rights and the Bill of Rights were conceded by the kings, and these two documents, together with the Great Charter, compose the Constitution of England. Englishmen were guaranteed:

1056 IMPROVEMENT ERA That all taxes should be raised by the consent of the Parliament of the malm; there should be freedom of speech and the right to petition the Crown in case of grievance, and election for parliament and debates shall be free.

An Act of Toleration was soon passed, freeing dissenters from punishment for not attending; the services of the Church of England, and the censorship of the press was abolished. With the landing of the Pilgrims on Plymouth Rock, in 1620, they drew up the celebrated Mayflower Compact, said by some to be the first constitution in the history of the world. In it one reads a broader spirit of political and civic rights than what the people had been used to, and it marks a mile post in the development of freedom. It reads:

"In the Name of God, Amen. We, whose names are under written, the loyal subjects of our dred Sovereign, King James, by the grace of God, Great Britain, France, and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, etc. Having undertaken for the glory of God, and advancement of the Christian faith, and honor of our king and countrie, a voyage to plant the first colonie in the northern part of Virginia, doe, by these presents, sol- emnly and mutually, in the presence of God, and one of another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil body politik, for our better ordering and preservation and furtherance of the ends aforesaid; and by virtue hereof, to enact, constitute, and frame such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions, offices, from time to time as shall be thought n'ost meet and convenient for the general good of the Colonie. Unto which we promise all due submission and obedience. In witness thereof, we have hereunto subscribed our names at Cape Cod, the 17th of November, in the year of the reign of our sovereigne lord, King James of England, France, and Ireland the eighteenth, and Scotland the fiftv-fourth, Anno Domini, 1620."

The Pilgrim fathers to America had high conceptions of life. While they were children of the times in which they lived, they came to America in search of homes where they could educate their children and worship God as they pleased. Earn- est, sober-minded men, they were actuated in all they did by deep religious principle. Says Governor Bradford, in his His- tory of Plymouth Plantation

"Our fathers were Englishmen, which came over this great ocean, and v rr ready to perish in the wilderness; but they cried unto ye Lord, and he heard their voice, and looked on their adversitie. Let them, therefore, praise ye Lord, because he is good and his mercies endureth for ever."

With the settlement of Massachusetts the most democratic svstem of government developed in the world was established. This was the town, the New England town, which tvne had be- come ages before the unit of government in old England. Tt was a compact group of settlers, with like economic, po- litical, and religious interests. The voters met once a vear,

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or oftener, at which they not only elected their town officers, but also decided many such things as these: what new roads the town shall make, what bridges construct, what schools shall be provided, how the town shall be protected, and what taxes shall be raised. This, so far as it goes, is government by the people, pure and simple. Jefferson called the New England town system "the wisest invention ever devised by the wit of man for the perfect exercise of self-government, and for its preservation." The township government spread into the West, and has been common to many of the states of the Union. In fact it is the unit of government in the United States. The "Mormon" pioneers introduced in into Utah, and in this State, it was one of the most democratic forms of government ever developed in America. Unlike the New England form, all were permitted to vote, and the women took an active part at times in all discus- sions. In the South, the Shire government was developed. It, too, was democratic in form. The county was the unit of political life, and it had its shire-gemot, or county meeting, to enact laws and do business like the town of New England. It has also re- mained one of our most important units of government in the United States. So, from the beginning of our history, the people began to learn self-government and to take an active part in the meth- ods by which they should be governed. The principles of de- mocracy and liberty derived in the town and shire gave them their broad and lofty conceptions of what a Nation should be. The Constitution of the United States is an outgrowth of the ideas of government that were developed in the colonies, and which had been born into the hearts of the colonists' fore- fathers in England. Mr. Bryce, in his American Commonwealth, says that the excellence of the Constitution is due to four causes: First, the acquaintance of the members of the Convention with the Eng- lish Constitution; second, the study of Montesquieu and his Spirit of the Laws; third, familiarity with written constitutions; and fourth, a knowledge of the Common Law. During the en- tire Colonial period, the colonists were governed under con- stitutions which guaranteed their liberties. The Virginia Char- ter of 1609 provided for a General Assembly or House of Bur- gesses; Connecticut had an Assembly of three men under the colonial charter of 1662, which was retained as the State Con- stitution until 1818. North Carolina had a House of Commons, and the old charter of Rhode Island served as the Constitution of the State, until 1842. Every one of the colonies had their law-making bodies, to watch the interests of the people, and when the king in 1684 sent Sir Edmond Andross over to be

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governor of Massachusetts, the people had been born and bred and they made life miserable for their new ex- to their rights, ecutive when that officer forgot the principle, "govern- ments resting on the consent of those governed." Increase Mather, father of Cotton Mather, tells us how the government went on: Their Charters being all declared to be void Sir Ed- . . . . . .

mund Andross was pitched on, as a fit Instrument to be made use . . .

of; and he, with four of his Council . . . are impowered to . . .

make Laws, and raise moneys on the Kings Subjects, without any Parlia- ment, Assembly, or Consent of the People. . . .

Laws are made indeed what they please: nor are they printed: . . .

. . so that the people are at a great loss to knoiv what is Law and what .

not. . One Law . . doth prohibit all Town-Meetings, except- . . .

ing . once a year; whereas the Inhabitants have occasion to meet . .

once a Week, for the Relief of the Poor; or other Town-Affairs. . . .

Moneys have been raised without any consent of the People. Sir . . .

Edmond Andross caused a Tax to be levied of a Penny in a Pound, on all the Towns then under his Government: and when at Ipswitch, and other places the Select Men voted, that inasmuch as it was against the common . . .

Priviledges of English Subjects to have money raised without their own Consent they would petition the King for Liberty of an Assembly . . .

before they [paid any Tax] .the said Sir Edmond Andross caused . . ;

them to be imprisoned and Fined. One of the former Magis- . . .

trates was committed to prison without any Crimes laid to his Charge, and there kept half a year without any Fault; and, their new Mas- . . .

ters tell them, that their Charter being gone, their Title to their Lands . . .is gone therewith, and that all is the Kings .; Accordingly . .

the Governour ordered the Lands belonging to some in Charles-Town to be measured out, and given to his Creatures. These were the miser- . . .

able Effects of New-England's being deprived of their Charters, and with them of their English iiberties: They have [tried] to obtain some ... relief in their sorrowful Bondage for several Gentelmen desired Increase ;

Mather, the Rector of the Colledge at Cambridge in New-England, to un- dertake a Voyage for England, to see what might be done .; amongst . .

other things the said Mather caused a petition from the Town of Cambridge in New England to be humbly presented to his Majesty, which . . .

shall be here inserted.

After the Civil War in England, 1689, the people again obtained their rights, and had their legislative assemblies. As early as 1642, there were factors at work in America which were tending to unite the people politically. In that year the colonies of New England formed a League for Mutual Pro- tection, which had a general council of two commissioners from each colony. This commission met every year until 1664, but in some respects, it had the functions of a nation. The league consisted of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Plymouth, and New Haven. In 1754, Franklin proposed the Albany Plan of Union, which had for its purpose the uniting of the colonies as a mat- ter of protection, and in order to bring about a unanimity of opinion in reference to the French in America. The cause of

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Virginia was looked upon as a common one, and all the colonies voted to aid her. The French and Indian war affected the in- terests of all the colonies. While the delegates at Albany voted against Franklin's plan on the ground that it gave too much power to the Crown, the Convention indicated the fact that the time had come when the colonists could unite in resisting a common foe. While they were widely separated, and distances in those days were great, there were forces that were tending to bring all Englishmen in America together under one form of government. In 1764, Parliament passed the Stamp Act. The next year the colonists in a convention which met in New York drew up a petition to the Crown and asked that the Act be repealed. The Act distinctly took away the right of the colonists to tax themselves, and this the new American could not tolerate. Now came forth the "Sons of Liberty" associations, formed all over the country to oppose the Stamp Act and to work for the cause of Liberty in all the colonies. The Act was repealed in 1766. The colonists had opposed not the tax, but the principle on which it was levied. They held that there could be no taxation without representation, a principle that had by that time be- come sacred to them. The next great step to bring about the Constitution was the Declaration of Independence, declared July 4th, 1776. The war of the Revolution had begun. The colonists were aroused, and the Second Continental Congress stated: "We are free and have a right to be free," a political, industrial, and social con- dition that had gradually come about through America's isola- tion and long distances from England. For the first time in history, and as a result of the many generations of men who had worked for the higher democracy, the fathers of the Congress, in 1776, said: "We hold these truths to be self evident that all men are created equal, and are endowed by the Creator with certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." The Declaration was made effective by the long war, and the determination of the colonists to main- tain their "inalienable rights." Independence had come. Thirteen governments were un- organized and swinging in the balance. The Article of Con- federation which had been drawn up by the United Colonies and which served as a Constitution was weak, in that it provided for no Executive to enforce the laws passed by the Legislative power. Then, too, the colonies were not converted to many of its pro- visions, and their support of it was spiritless. Something greater was needed. Commerce and trade was in a bad condition, and as to who controlled the rivers in America was a question which had to be settled. Then there was the war debt, and how it should be paid was the burning question at issue.