Overview
A radical proposal for a written constitution based on popular sovereignty. The Levellers argued that government derives all power from the people, who retain certain inalienable rights. Directly anticipates American constitutional principles.
Historical Context
The Levellers: A movement within the New Model Army demanding political equality. Their name (meant as an insult) suggested they wanted to "level" social distinctions. They wanted written law above all authorities.
The Context: The Civil War had destroyed royal authority. Who would fill the vacuum? Cromwell wanted a republic led by the "godly." The Levellers wanted democracy - or at least something much closer to it.
The Document: This "Agreement" was meant to be signed by all citizens as a social contract. It proposed: elected parliaments, religious freedom, equality before law, and limits on government power that even Parliament couldn't violate.
The Outcome: Cromwell suppressed the Levellers. The movement ended, but their ideas - popular sovereignty, written constitutions, inalienable rights - crossed the Atlantic.
Educational Note: This document is part of the official James Madison Foundation curriculum for the Presidential 1776 Award. It shows where concepts like "consent of the governed" and "inalienable rights" originated before Locke and Jefferson.
Full Text
AN AGREEMENT OF THE FREE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND, tendered as a peace offering to this distressed nation.
We the free People of England, to whom God hath given hearts, means and opportunity to effect the same, do with submission to his wisdom, in his name, and desiring the equity thereof may be to his praise and glory, agree to ascertain our Government, to abolish all arbitrary Power, and to set bounds and limits both to our Supreme, and all Subordinate Authority.
I. That the Supreme Authority of England and the Territories therewith incorporate, shall be and reside henceforward in a Representative of the people consisting of four hundred persons; in the choice of whom all men of the age of one and twenty years and upwards shall have their voices.
II. That the matter of Religion, and the worship of God, is not at all entrusted by us to any human power, because therein we cannot admit of any latitude, but every one stands and falls to his own conscience.
III. That in all Laws made or to be made, every person may be bound alike, and that no Tenure, Estate, Charter, Degree, Birth, or place, confer any exemption from the ordinary Course of Legal proceedings.
IV. That all Laws, made by any former Parliaments, which take away or abridge any man's life, limb, liberty, or property, be looked into and repealed.
V. That as the laws ought to be equal, so they must be good, and not evidently destructive to the safety and well-being of the people.
These things we declare to be our native Rights, which we will never be deprived of, by whatsoever authority.