NEW YORK CHARTER OF LIBERTIES AND PRIVILEGES (October 30, 1683)

The first enactment of the first general assembly in New York was a statute but had the characteristics of a charter or constitution of fundamental law. Its purpose was to establish a government "that Justice and Right may be Equally done to all persons …,"an early forerunner of the principle of equal protection of the laws. After describing the organs of government and empowering every freeholder to vote for representatives, the statute paraphrased chapter 39 of magna carta and provided that no taxes should be imposed but by the general assembly. Then followed protections of the rights of the criminally accused, including a right to indictment by grand jury in criminal cases. Another provision of the document, after protecting religious liberty, created a multiple establishment of religion. It allowed the towns on Long Island to elect Christian ministers of their choice, to be supported by town rates, and declared that "all" the other Christian churches in the province were "priviledged Churches … Established" by law. Elsewhere in Christendom, an established church meant a church of a single denomination preferred over all others.

The Privy Council disallowed the statute in 1686. In 1691, after James II was overthrown, the general assembly substantially reenacted it but again it was disallowed, probably because it curbed the royal prerogative. Although the statute never became law, it is early evidence of the high regard that colonists had for Magna Carta, written guarantees of their liberties, and the principle that there should be no taxation without representation.

Leonard W. Levy
(1986)

Bibliography

Andrew, Charles Mc Lean 1936 The Colonial Period of American History. Vol. 3:114–121. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press.