Existing comment:
The English do not have a formal written constitution. Instead, documents like the Magna Carta, plus traditions and legal precedents gathered over the centuries, form the basis of government. An inherited understanding of how the law works holds the system together. Colonists moving to the New World brought the English system with them.
Having crossed the ocean, however, settlers quickly discovered that although the ideals of English law readily translated to the wilderness, the mechanics did not. Forming new societies without a hereditary ruling class, based on written charters or land grants rather than on tradition, and far from the courts of England, colonists realized the necessity of new legal systems.
As early as 1620, Pilgrims arriving on the Mayflower drafted a plan for their new community and required each head of household to sign the Mayflower Compact. This charter, like those that followed, resulted from a combination of idealism and pragmatism. The leaders of the Plymouth Colony came with a vision for their settlement and wanted to protect their principles. With the signing of the Compact, they attempted to bind their entire group to these ideas. More practically, the Plymouth Company arrived with a grant for a colony in Virginia, but actually landed in Massachusetts. Accompanying the Pilgrims were a group of "foreigners" (non-Pilgrims) who had sworn allegiance to the Pilgrim leaders as a condition of their passage to the new world.
These leaders feared that the unexpected location of the colony would give these people an excuse to rebel, arguing that their pledge of obedience only applied in Virginia. By signing the Mayflower Compact, all agreed to a plan of community for the Plymouth Colony.
Early charters, like the Mayflower Compact, only sought to create social and legal order on the frontier. Immediate concerns were with survival and cultural continuation.
The growing security of the colonies plus a developing sense of possibility led to later charters addressing not only community needs but also individual rights. With documents such as William Penn's Charter of Privileges, Americans stepped away from English tradition not only in relying on inclusive, written constitutions but also in insisting that those documents protect the law, the society, and individuals within that society |