In Pursuit of Liberty: The Levellers and the American Bill of Rights

Abstract

The Levellers were grass roots movement that emerged during the English Civil War of the 1640s. Though soon suppressed and often reviled, they espoused a remarkably innovative program of radical democratic reform. They proposed a written constitution for the nation that bound Parliament. It contained substantial limits on governmental power - a sort of bill of rights that limited all aspects of government. These limits included broad criminal procedure rights, many well before they were generally guaranteed by English law - such as the right to counsel in all cases, a right against self-incrimination, the right to a copy of the indictment, a right against ex post facto laws, and other common law rights such the right to summon witnesses for the defense and to a jury of twelve.

The Agreement also provided for broad freedom of religion, an end to tithes, an end to imprisonment for debt and to conscription (which applied in fact only to those of lesser status). The Levellers wanted to substantially democratize the English Parliament (and eliminate the House of Lords) and their Agreement took steps in that direction as well.

Many Levellers' ideas reappeared in the United States. Levellers insisted that legitimate governmental power depended on the consent of the governed, a consent linked to very broad male franchise. They insisted that government officials were agents of the people who had a fiduciary duty to govern in accordance with the interests of their principal (the people). They invoked popular sovereignty, which they understood to mean that the people were the highest political power in the nation. As a result, the Levellers developed the idea of a constitution coming directly from the people, one that was therefore superior to laws passed by parliament.

Keywords: Constitutional Law, Bill of Rights, Levellers, Legal History

JEL Classification: K10