Professor Offers Commentary

Pa. Charter Day a reminder of where American greatness began

If we hope to make America great again, it would be good to know what made America great to begin with.

March 12 is a good time to reflect on this question, as it is Pennsylvania Charter Day, where we remember King Charles II's Charter to William Penn in 1681, along with Pennsylvania's Great Law of 1682.

Penn believed that the principles of these documents were foundational, not only for Pennsylvania, but would serve as "the seed of a nation" - and indeed as an example for many nations.

What were the principles that Penn found so important to the greatness of a state? The Charter and Great Law make provisions for: judicial fairness, rule of law, and due process; a representative, accountable legislature; and an executive committed to the civil rights and liberties of the people. Penn placed a special emphasis on the equal treatment of people of all religious beliefs, a conviction rooted in his dissenting Protestant biblical and philosophical conceptions of the rights of individual conscience given by a divine Creator.

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