1. Historical Influences on the U.S. Constitution

2. Magna Carta / 1215
The Magna Carta contained two basic principles that helped to shape both the American and British government. It made clear that English monarchs themselves had to obey the law and also stated that English nobles had certain rights that were later extended to other classes. The
idea of property rights greatly influenced early Americans. The document limited the power of the king and guaranteed a citizen’s right to fair treatment under law. The idea of “the rule of law” was important to the framers of the Constitution.

3. New England Colonial Town Meetings / 1600 - 1700
The New England colonial town meetings were open forums that promised democracy. Each meeting was open to the general public and was a place for community members to feel safe and secure in attending and expressing their opinions. It was a democratic style of government and allowed mass participation in politics.

4. Virginia House of Burgesses / 1619
The Virginia Company promised the settlers of Jamestown, that as English citizens, they had the right to a representative assembly. The new governor established the House of Burgesses, the first representative assembly in the American colonies. Many of the American founders had served in the Virginia House of Burgesses, including George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. To the delegates of the Constitutional Convention, the right to representative government was clear.

5. The Mayflower Compact / 1620
This was the first plan of government written and acted on in what is now the United States. Its basic principles of self-government and common consent set an important
precedent in the colonies and influenced the framers of the Constitution. It states a belief in the idea that political authority rests in the hands of the people, "people have a say in the government."

6. Fundamental Orders of Connecticut / 1639
This is considered a “constitution” in the modern sense and so is claimed to be the first written constitution. It was a detailed plan of government which gave power to the people. It laid the groundwork for today's government.

7. Charles de Montesquieu’s Idea of the Separation of Powers 1689 – 1755
De Montesquieu’s work influenced American ideas on how a government should be constructed. In his 1748 book The Spirit of Laws he stressed the importance of the rule of law and that the powers of government should be clearly defined and divided up. He suggested the three separate branches - legislative, executive, and judicial which was designed to keep any individual or group from gaining too much power.

9. English Bill of Rights / 1689
Created by the English Parliament and signed by the king, this bill limited the power of the monarchy and increased the liberty of the English people. It outlined certain rights and requirements:
the president will carry out the laws made by Congress
the judicial branch must be independent
Congress alone can levy taxes
freedom of speech
Parliamentary elections should be held regularly
The right to a trial by jury
The right to bear arms.

10. Habeus Corpus / 1689
No person should be held in prison without first being charged with a specific crime. (Referenced in the English Bill of Rights.)

12. The First Treatise is a criticism of Robert Filmer’s Patriarcha, which argues in support of the divine right of kings. According to Locke, Filmer cannot be correct because his theory holds that every man is born a slave to the natural born kings. Locke refuses to accept such a theory because of his belief in reason and in the ability of every man to virtuously govern himself according to God’s law. The Second Treatise is Locke’s proposed solution to the political upheaval in England and in other modern countries. This text laid the foundation for modern forms of democracy and for the Constitution of the United States.

13. Locke’s definition and function of property states that whether by natural reason or the word of the Bible, the earth can be considered the property of all the people in the world to use for their collective survival and benefit.
But Locke also believes in individual property. For individual property to exist, there must be a way for individuals to take possession of the things around them. Locke explains that the best theory of right to ownership is rooted in the fact that each person owns his or her own body and all the labor that he or she performs with that body. So, when an individual adds his own physical labor, which is his own property, to a foreign object or material, that object and any resulting products become his property as well.
Locke defines labor as the determining factor of value, the tool by which humans make their world a more efficient and rewarding place for all. Locke explains that money fulfills the need for a constant measure of worth in a trading system but is still rooted in the property of labor.

14. THE IROQUOIS CONSTITUTION:
A FORERUNNER TO COLONISTS' DEMOCRATIC PRINCIPLES
[NY Times June 28, 1987)
One of the main influences on the framers of the Constitution was the unwritten democratic constitution under which the Iroquois Confederacy had operated since the 16th century, according to a group of American Indians and scholars.
''If Americans are going to celebrate the anniversary of their Constitituion, we figure we had better tell them where the idea came from,'' said Chief Oren Lyons, an Onondaga and an associate professor of American studies at the State University at Buffalo.

15. The Onondaga, are one of the six nations
The Onondaga, are one of the six nations that now make up the confederation, which stretches from the Mohawks near Albany to the Senecas near Buffalo.
Before Europeans settled upstate in the 1600's, the Five Nations of the Iroquois lived under a constitution that had three main principles, peace, equity or justice and ''the power of the good minds,'' that of the elders over the young, Professor Lyons said.
While Americans celebrated the bicentennial of the United States Constitution, a group of Iroquois has solicited help from scholars in assembling evidence of the Indian precedent and the encouragement the colonists received from Indian leaders to unite and establish their own nation.

16. ''The common wisdom among historians is
''The common wisdom among historians is that the people who wrote the Constitution had no concept of the Indian way of life,‘’ said John Mohawk, a Seneca from the Cattaraugus Indian Reservation near Buffalo, and the organizer, with Professor Lyons, of the project. ''But what made the colonists American as opposed to English was their experiences with the Indians.‘’
As proof, they cite records kept by the colonists. An Onondaga named Canassatego suggested that the colonists form a nation similar to the Iroquois Confederacy during a meeting of the Provincial Council of Pennsylvania in Lancaster on June 25, 1744.
According to the director of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Peter J. Parker, the council minutes show that Canassatego urged the colonists to ''receive these your brethren with open arms; unite yourselves to them in the covenant chain and be you with them as one body and one soul.''

17. In the years that followed, the colonists
In the years that followed, the colonists went from one meeting to another, looking for unions they should study, according to the executive director of the New York State Bicentennial Commission, Stephen L. Schechter.
''They contemplated examples from Europe, examples from Greco-Roman times, examples from the Bible,'' he said. ''And they also looked at Native American examples, particularly the Iroquois Confederacy.‘’
One forum to share ideas between the colonists and the Iroquois, in the years leading to the French and Indian War, was the the Albany Congress between June 19 and July 9, At the meeting, representatives of the six Indian nations and seven colonies heard Benjamin Franklin. champion the Iroquois example as he presented his Plan of Union.

18. ''It would be a strange thing,‘’. he told the assembly, ''if six
''It would be a strange thing,‘’ he told the assembly, ''if six nations of ignorant savages should be capable of forming such a union, and yet it has subsisted for ages and appears indissolvable, and yet, like a union, should be impractical for 10 or a dozen English colonies.''
The Constitution granted the Government power to regulate commerce, enter treaty agreements and make war and peace with the Indian tribes. The fact that treaty-making powers were taken from the states has become the basis of an Oneida claim to six million acres of land in the state, from Pennsylvania to Canada.
''There was an expectation in the U.S. Constitution that the practices toward the Indian nations would be the same as they had been with the British and other Europeans for the previous 150 years,'' said Howard Berman, a professor at the California Western School of Law in San Diego.

19. ''That practice was based on mutual
''That practice was based on mutual agreements and consent and, in almost all respects, was an international relationship between two different countries,'' Professor Berman, who works with the Iroquois research project, added.
Instead, after the Constitution was written, the Government enacted laws allowing the seizure of Indian land and such interference on sovereign Indian territory as the arrest of Indians for major crimes, Professor Berman said.
The Iroquois continue to live under their constitution and government. For example, the 26 Onondaga chiefs met this month to ban gambling and the sale of fireworks from their territory near here.