the 4th of July, is one of several important
dates as it is the birthdate of the American
Declaration of Independence. As important as
the event of the framing and signing of that
document was in American history, the ideas
in our Declaration had firm footing in earlier
struggles involving the English Crown.
The earliest codification of universal human
liberty was offered up by Henry I of England
at the time of his coronation. Henry was a
usurper. His brother Robert had been away,
involved in the First Crusade, at the moment
it became his turn to succeed to the Crown
of the combined England and Normandy. Henry,
next in line, took advantage of the absence
of his brother Robert, seized the treasury
and was crowned king on August 5, 1100.
Henry signed the Charter of Liberties, a
document that reads somewhat like the Magna
Carta (executed a little over 2 centuries
later) in order to assure the support of the
earls and barons of England, or perhaps better
states, to prevent the opposition of the barons.
He negotiated the other problems, with the people
within arm's, reach his ascendancy to the throne
by settling a long standing problem with the
Pope, and by marrying a woman of mixed Scottish
(her father had been Scotland's Malcolm III)
Anglo parentage. In those days signing the Charter
of Liberties was, for a king, giving up a
significant amount of power.
Unfortunately for England, the promises did not
descend through successive kings.
By 1215, the barons had had enough of the King's
antics. They went to London in an armed group on
June 10, 1215, and forced King John to agree to
their demands on June 15. The document took another
month to prepare, and that was completed on July
19, 1215, becoming the official and original
Magna Carta.
Even so, it became a requirement that a new copy
be agreed to at the coronation of new kings, and
the specific requirements in those successive
documents changed over time. The version that
remains the law in England and Wales is the
1297 edition with many individual clauses repealed
over the years. The critical parts, habeas corpus
and due process, remain intact.
Much as the Magna Carta had been based on the
Charter of Liberties in an earlier time, the
American Declaration of Independence found its
principles rooted in Magna Carta.
We celebrate the 4th of July as the beginning of
the United States of America. It led to the first
war in which Americans, as a people, fought so
that the Rule of Law replaced the Rule of Men. It
is just as important to recognize that every
single war we, as a people, have engaged in ever
since the signing of the Declaration of Independence
some 233 years ago today has been the very same
war. Each war has been to enforce the supremacy
of the Rule of Law where others have replaced it
with the Rule of Men. There will be more on this
topic in subsequent articles in this series.
I had mentioned earlier that my family came to the
USA after WWII precisely over this issue. The
document displayed below was one that my father
had to carry in Hungary after the war. On the
left is the Russian language version, stamped and
signed off by the Soviet official in charge of the
occupation forces. On the right is the Hungarian
language version, signed by the minister of natural
resources and a corporate official of the
Hungarian-American Oil Company. What the document
says is that my father is employed in a job that
is important to the state and must not be taken to
do other work.
TAKE NOTICE: Personal rights are not the
focal point! All that matters is the needs of the
state.
There was a real need for my father to carry this
with him at all times. In those days, when some
workers were needed to perform some task or another,
whoever was charged with getting the work done was
authorized to send armed men out on the streets to
round up anyone they saw and bring them back to do
whatever job that needed doing.
While today we understand that this is one of the
more extreme cases of Rule of Men prevailing over
the Rule of Law, the simple fact is that people
lived and died because of such conduct by the
state. And it also pays to understand that we,
the United States of America, condoned such
conduct by our allies, so long as it wasn't in
our face. Consider also the political perspecive
of President Obama who put political expediency
over the principles we have bled and died for
since 1776 when he remained quiet while Iran was
killing citizens involved in peaceful protests
in the streets of their capital.
Looking the other way.........a problem prevalent
in Iron County today, and our White House as well.
Bill Vajk
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