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“Those who cannot learn from history aredoomed to repeat it.”—VARIOUSLY ATTRIBUTED TO

GEORGE SANTAYANA OR EDMUNDBURKE

ost people are bored with history.Some history, however, controlsour lives today. Eight hundred

years ago the seed of freedom and prosperitybegan to take root in England. You’d neverrecognize it from the powerful set of princi-ples that were eventually engrafted in theConstitution of the United States, but it wasa unique beginning. It is considered to be thefirst constitution ever written inEurope.

Until 1215 the world was ruledby tribal chiefs, despots and kingswho generally had undisputedpower over everyone. However,when King John signed the MagnaCarta at Runnymede, an agonizinglyslow process was born that gave usthe freedoms we have today.

Written entirely in Latin, theMagna Carta (“Great Charter”) wasborn after years of strife and civilwar between the feudal nobility andKing John in England. Just like somany kings before him, John abusedhis powers. Under the feudal system,the nobility had to provide themoney and manpower for the kingto raise armies to conquer land. Por-tions of France were already underEnglish control and the nobility hadto cover the costs of an army to pro-tect and administer it.

In addition to barons providingthe men for armies, kings historical-ly consulted the barons before rais-ing taxes. King John, not so much.He was forever demanding moretaxes and men. In 1204, John lost theconquered land in northern France andimmediately demanded even higher taxeswithout consulting the barons. At the sametime he challenged the authority of PopeInnocent III, and in 1208 became the firstsovereign to be excommunicated by the

AT TOP: A woodcut from 1864 depicts King John and the barons at Runnymede signing the MagnaCarta in 1215. Although the Magna Carta faced a rocky future, it could be said to be one of the mostimportant documents underpinning western civilization and the U.S. Constitution. PHOTO: UNIVERSAL

HISTORY ARCHIVE/UN/REX; PUBLIC DOMAIN

ABOVE: The original Magna Carta in 1215, written in Latin. Although the document had many defects,further improvement allowed the common man to own property, which allowed England to develop amiddle class and become the wealthiest nation on earth with a vast Empire. PHOTO: PUBLIC DOMAIN

The 800-year road to freedom. Most of the historic documents dealt with the rights of private property. By Michael S. Coffman, Ph.D.

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SUMMER 2015 • RANGE MAGAZINE • 17To comment on this issue, send a short letter or “like” us on Facebook!

Catholic Church. All church services werealso banned in England, raising the ire of allcitizens. It wasn’t until 1214 that John relent-ed and accepted the power of the CatholicChurch.

After being defeated by France onceagain in 1213-14, John demanded “scutage”(money paid in lieu of military service) fromthe barons who had not joined him on thebattlefield, much to the outrage of the nobili-ty. Meanwhile, Stephen Langton, archbishopof Canterbury, successfully channeled baro-

nial unrest to put increasing pressure on theking to make concessions.

King John finally agreed to the arch-bishop’s concessions, but when negotiationsstalled in early 1215, civil war broke out andJohn’s longtime adversary, Baron RobertFitzWalter, gained control of London.Backed into a corner, King John yielded onJune 15, 1215, at Runnymede beside theRiver Thames. He accepted the terms in adocument called the Articles of the Barons.A final version written in Latin was issuedfour days later that would be renamed theMagna Carta.

Of the 61 clauses or chapters in theMagna Carta, most dealt with propertyrights. Nine chapters played a central rolewhen America’s Founders wrote the U.S.Constitution and Bill of Rights. Theseranged from the protection of the Church, tothe right of petition, freedom from forcedquartering of troops, unreasonable searches,trial by jury, cruel and unusual punishment,to the most important, due process of lawand property rights.

For instance, Chapter 39 of the MagnaCarta states: “No freeman shall be arrested,or detained in prison, or deprived of his free-hold [property], or in any way molested; andwe [the King] will not set forth against him,nor send against him, unless by the lawfuljudgment of his peers by the law of the land.”

Habeas corpus, rule of law, freedom fromsearch and seizure, trial by jury, legally pro-tected private property rights in the Consti-tution and the Bill of Rights all come fromthat chapter.

King John apparently could not acceptdefeat and reneged on several key provisions.Three months after he signed it, civil waronce again broke out. Following the death ofJohn in 1216, the advisors of his successor,nine-year-old Henry III, reissued the MagnaCarta. It was reissued again in 1217 and 1225with modifications.

In the 1225 revision, Chapter 39 of the1215 version of the Magna Carta becameChapter 29: “No freeman shall be taken, orimprisoned, or be disseised of his freehold

[old English for depriving a person of hisproperty] or liberties, or free customs, or beoutlawed, or exiled or any otherwisedestroyed; nor will we [the King] pass uponhim, nor condemn him, but by lawful judg-ment of his peers, or by the law of the land.We will sell to no man, we will not deny ordefer to any man either justice or right.”

As Chapter 29 of the 1225 Magna Cartashows, the various revisions and updates tothe Magna Carta served to strengthen therights of individuals, especially their privateproperty rights.

From 1225 to 1690The rights guaranteed in the Magna Cartawere threatened in the early 1600s when

Sir Edward Coke (1552-1634) was a writer and barrister who first became chief justice of the King’sBench and then a powerful member of Parliament. He was able to pass the “Petition of Right” whichseverely restricted the king’s power. He also gave to the common man the ability to own legally protectedprivate property rights. PHOTO: PUBLIC DOMAIN

The common citizen still had novoice in government and had noproperty rights. That changed inthe late 1500s when Sir Edward

Coke (1552-1634) wrote that all menshould have the right to own legally

protected property.

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King Charles I broke up Parliament andruled England on his own. His decreesdenied Englishmen due process, protectionfrom unjust seizure of property or imprison-ment, the right to trial by jury of fellow Eng-lishmen, and protection from unjustpunishments or excessive fines.

In response, Parliament wrote the Peti-tion of Right in 1628. Like John in 1215when he accepted the Magna Carta, in 1628Charles I initially accepted the Petition ofRight. He had to in order to continue thebrutal 30 Years’ War that devastated Europe.

The Petition of Right imposed restric-tions on the king’s ability to levy abusivetaxes, forced billeting of soldiers, imprison-ment without cause, and the use of martiallaw. Also like John, Charles I soon broke his

word and resumed his authoritative rule. Aswith John, civil war broke out, ending withthe beheading of Charles I in 1649. Thenobility’s property rights were not to be tri-fled with. Charles I was succeeded by CharlesII, who ruled until his death in 1685.

The Habeas Corpus Act was passed byParliament in 1679 as the Magna Cartaevolved. Both the Petition of Right and theHabeas Corpus Act were based on Clause 39of the original Magna Carta: “no free manshall be...imprisoned or disseised...except bythe lawful judgment of his peers or by thelaw of the land.” They were also based onClause 40 which states: “to no one will wesell, to no one will we deny or delay right orjustice.” Like the Magna Carta, both docu-ments played a central role in the writing of

the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights.There was one more major bump in the

English road to liberty. By 1685, King Jamessucceeded his brother Charles II whenCharles died. James was a Catholic andbegan invoking laws favorable to Catholics,ignoring the Protestant Parliament. WhenJames positioned a part of his large armynear London, Parliament feared it might be aprelude to James claiming all power for him-self, just as his father Charles I had done.

King James’ daughter, Mary, fortuitouslyhappened to be a Protestant. She was also inline for the throne, once removed by hermuch younger brother. She had previouslymarried William of Orange, a Protestantprince in the Netherlands. Parliament invitedWilliam of Orange to invade England. Calledthe Glorious Revolution, William had theProtestant English citizenry on his side andeasily won the war in 1689. Parliament invit-ed William and Mary to become king andqueen. They accepted, albeit with certainrestraints called the English Bill of Rights—which made sure that the monarchy couldnever again do what James had done. If theking or queen wanted to raise taxes or keep astanding army, they had to get the permis-sion of Parliament. Not surprisingly, theEnglish Bill of Rights was based upon thenow much revised Magna Carta. It con-tained important provisions by which themonarchy lost any absolute powers it mayhave retained in the 1215 Magna Carta. Withit, England became a “constitutional monar-chy” in which the monarch was the officialhead of state but the real power was in theelected Parliament.

Again, the English Bill of Rights played acentral role in creating the U.S. Constitutionand Bill of Rights. That is especially true ofthe separation of powers. America’sFounders were acutely aware that if there wasany opportunity for the king to take powerfrom the legislative branch, sooner or later hewill make the attempt. It is human nature.That led the Founders to create the tripartitesystem upon which the Constitution rests:legislative, executive and judicial.

Three Influential Philosophers Initially the provisions of the Magna Cartawere only granted to the nobility. Of its 63clauses, many were concerned with the vari-ous property rights of barons and otherpowerful citizens. The common citizen stillhad no voice in government and had noproperty rights. That changed in the late

Sir William Blackstone (1723-1780) wrote the “Commentaries of the Laws of England” which definedproperty rights as a key part of the Rule of Law. It was the foundation of U.S. law until the mid-20thcentury when progressive jurists began to change the Rule of Law into something they could twist to theirbenefit. PHOTO: PUBLIC DOMAIN

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1500s when Sir Edward Coke (1552-1634)wrote that all men should have the right toown legally protected property.

It was Sir Edward who wrote and thenpresented the Petition of Right passed byParliament to Charles I in 1628. Sir Edwardthen established an independent judiciaryin England that reinforced the basis ofthree equal branches defined in the U.S.Constitution.

John Locke (1632-1704) followed on theheels of Sir Edward Coke. Locke studiedmedicine at Oxford where he received abachelor of medicine in 1674. He was also a

philosopher and prolific writer and laidmuch of the groundwork for the Enlighten-ment. He made central contributions to thedevelopment of scientific empiricism andtrue liberalism (not to be confused with thehijacked concept by “leftism” in today’sAmerican politics). Locke’s greatest contri-bution was to build a more thorough ratio-nale for private property rights andgovernment from the foundation of theMagna Carta.

Locke’s “Two Treatises of Government”was initially ignored in England but eventu-ally provided the foundational thinking ofthe American Founding Fathers. His theoryof limited government by the consent of thegoverned and nature’s law of “life, liberty andestate” deeply influenced the AmericanFounders and played a central role in theframing of our founding documents—espe-cially the Declaration of Independence.

While “Two Treatises of Government”provided the foundational principles of theUnited States, it was Sir William Blackstone(1723-1780) who provided the foundationof American law. Like Sir Edward, SirWilliam was a prolific writer, a member ofParliament and jurist, eventually becoming ajudge. While all three philosophers wereextensively cited by our Founding Fathers, it

is Sir William Blackstone and his “Commen-taries on the Laws of England” that revolu-tionized English and American law.

Sir William’s longest volume was the“Right of Things,” which dealt with propertyrights. In it, he emphatically stated: “Thethird absolute right, inherent in every Eng-lishman, is that of property: which consistsin the free use, enjoyment, and disposal of allhis acquisitions, without any control ordiminution, save only by the laws of the land.The laws of England are therefore, in pointof honor and justice, extremely watchful inascertaining and protecting this right.” SirWilliam based his legal theories on theMagna Carta as refined by Sir Edward Coke,John Locke and other lesser known Britishphilosophers of the day.

Sir William’s “Commentaries” providedthe legal backbone to most of our foundingdocuments in general, and the U.S. Constitu-tion specifically, so much so that they ranksecond only to the Bible as a literary and

intellectual influence on the history of Amer-ican institutions. More importantly, for wellover a hundred years the U.S. SupremeCourt depended heavily upon Sir William’s“Commentaries” in deciding constitutionallaw. That changed as 20th century progres-sives attained positions of power within thejudiciary system and moved away from SirWilliam’s civil liberty foundation to a muchmore socialist view of law.

Property RightsIt is staggering how the public education sys-tem in America has revised history so muchthat Americans no longer even recognize thenames of Coke, Locke and Blackstone, letalone that their writings form the basis ofour liberties. Worse, most Americans thinkproperty rights are not all that important,when in fact they are the most importantright we have. There is a reason for this.

Bernard Siegan, distinguished profes-sor at the University of San Diego Law

John Locke (1632-1704) wrote “Two Treatises of Government” which further defined property rights.It is Locke’s principles that our Founding Fathers copied (in some cases) in the Declaration ofIndependence and wove into the Constitution. PHOTO: PUBLIC DOMAIN

While Sir Edward Coke established the right of the

common man to have propertyrights, it is John Locke

who established the powerful connection between those rights

and “nature’s God.”

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School, did an exhaustive review of historyand law from the Magna Carta throughrecent history. In his book, “PropertyRights: From the Magna Carta to theFourteenth Amendment,” Siegan takes thereader step-by-step through history in oneof the best documented analyses of ourlegal roots in modern times. He exhaus-tively reviewed key state, federal and

Supreme Court decisions during the first80 years of the United States. His detailedreview proves progressive commentatorsapparently “overlooked” a mountain ofcase law that shows that the protection ofprivate property rights was central toalmost every decision made by the variouscourts during those first 80 years. Morethan that, he found that there was a“remarkable consistency between the rul-ings of state and federal judges. Virtuallyall [court decisions] supported therequirement of just compensation to vali-date a nonconsensual government acquisi-tion or occupation of private property.”

These U.S. court decisions cited SirEdward Coke, John Locke and Sir WilliamBlackstone. Our Founding Fathers made itcrystal clear that well-protected propertyrights are the foundation to life, liberty andthe creation of wealth. James Madison wasso convinced of the importance of propertyrights that he wrote: “Government is institut-ed to protect property of every sort; as well asthat which lies in the various rights of indi-viduals...this being the end of government,that alone is a just government, whichimpartially secures, to every man, whatever ishis own.”

The importance of private propertyrights was a central tenet freely and often dis-cussed amongst all the citizenry. Alex de Toc-

queville, the French scholar and politicalcommentator, traveled through Americastudying its culture and law from 1831-1832.He confirmed: “In no other country in theworld is the love of property keener or morealert than in the United States, and nowhereelse does the majority display less inclinationtoward doctrines which in any way threatenthe way property is owned.”

The Loss of Property RightsSo how did U.S. law get so perverted that thegovernment can now dictate to private citi-zens how they use their property? Our gov-ernment replaced the real history revealed bySiegan with socialist revisionism in schooltextbooks and alleged “scholarly works.” Pro-gressive revisionism has been standard fornearly 100 years. Progressivism is based inemotionalism, and school textbooks andmedia almost always focus on how commonuse of property (like other people’s pay-checks) benefits all people.

As we’ve described in numerous RANGEarticles over the past years (see footnote), theEPA is one of the worst offenders. It isattempting to control all property rightsthrough a host of draconian regulations thatare supported by little to no science: the waron coal(1), expansion of water jurisdiction(2),global warming(3), green energy(4), Agenda21(5), and rampant corruption(6). All destroyprivate property rights and state sovereigntyby centralizing control in Washington, D.C.

It would be wise to heed the warning ofThomas Jefferson in 1821: “When all govern-ment, domestic and foreign, in little as ingreat things, shall be drawn to Washington asthe center of all power, it will render power-less the checks provided of one governmenton another and will become as venal andoppressive as the government from which we

separated.”Jefferson was not a prophet. He merely

understood human nature and how it wouldcorrupt the intent of the Constitution overtime. Ask yourself: What constitutional pro-vision authorizes asset forfeiture, even whenthe person has not been charged with acrime? Where in the Constitution does itallow a federal agency to usurp jurisdictionover nearly every drop of water in the UnitedStates? What constitutional provision allowsPresident Obama to trash the Constitutionand make law never passed by Congress?Where in the Constitution does it state thatthe government can force us to purchaseinsurance? The list goes on and on.

All power is now being drawn to Wash-ington. Worse, all power is being drawn toone branch of government—the executive. Itis a replay of King John and King Jamestrashing the Magna Carta and taking allpower to themselves. President Obama andprogressives in general (Republicans andDemocrats) are attempting a federaltakeover on an unprecedented scale by neu-tering state sovereignty, Congress and theConstitution.

When English kings John and Jamesrejected the Magna Carta and Parliament,civil war resulted. Is that where America isheaded? Will Americans continue to watchtheir sports or play their electronic games—oblivious to what this president and his sup-porters are doing to make Congress and ourConstitution redundant?

Why do we continue to support politi-cians who defend the criminal activities ofbig government? It doesn’t matter if a politi-cian is illegally doing something you maywant. The illegal action establishes precedentand weakens everyone’s civil rights. It is timeto recall, impeach or even charge with trea-son those politicians and judges who make amockery of the rule of law that provides theliberty that was purchased by blood of ourforefathers and Englishmen before them. ■

Dr. Coffman is president of EnvironmentalPerspectives Incorporated (epi-us.com) andCEO of Sovereignty International in Bangor,Maine (sovereignty.net). He has had over 40years of university teaching, research and con-sulting experience in forestry and environmen-tal sciences. His newest book is an updatedversion of “Radical Islam in the House” and isgetting rave reviews. For more information,AmericaPlundered.com or call 207-945-9878.

It would be wise to heed the warning of Thomas Jefferson in 1821:“When all government, domestic and foreign, in little as in greatthings, shall be drawn to Washington as the center of all power, it will render powerless the checks provided of one government

on another and will become as venal and oppressive as the government from which we separated. ”

FOOTNOTE: For the following stories by Dr. Michael S. Coffman, click on back issues atwww.rangemagazine.com: (1) “United EPA of America,” Summer 2014; (2) “EPA—The God OverWater,” Summer 2014, and “EPA Wants it All,” Winter 2015; (3) “Climate Fraud & the Decline ofAmerica,” Winter 2013, and “Hot Air,” Fall 2014; (4) “The Disconnect,” Fall 2013; (5) “Agenda 21:Swallowing America,” Winter 2014; and (6) “Secret Science,” Winter 2015.

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