Apples and Rocks: The US Constitution and the Iroquois Laws of the Confederacy
A Comparison
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Some “authorities” suggest that the United States Constitution is based in part on a set of parliamentary rules known as the Laws of the Confederacy of the Iroquois League of Peace. Though this is an interesting and colorful idea, neither the texts nor the supporting documents bear it out.
Intent
The Preamble to the Constitution states the purpose of the document (to form a government) clearly, if not succinctly, as well as in whose voice (“We the People”) the document is being made. Nowhere in the known texts do the Iroquois Laws address any of these issues directly. One version, called the Great Law of Peace of the Longhouse People, is said to have conquest as a main tenet. Yet another version presents a series of dictated procedural rules from Dekanahwideh (a Huron mystic, also spelled Deganawidah), some from a body called “the lords,” and some from no one at all.
Organization
The Constitution comprises a Preamble and eight Articles, most of which are divided into Sections. The extant texts of the Laws lack the Constitution’s organization, although they have a certain organizing sense. Each Article in the Constitution describes specific issues: The Congress, the executive and judicial branches, the rights of the states, limits to Federal power, amending the Constitution, payment of public debts and ratification of the Constitution itself. Herewith lies the closest parallel with the Laws, though the Iroquois employs symbolism far more than it lays out specific requirements or makes declarations.
Development
The Constitution developed over a period of years as an improvement over the Articles of Confederation; the debate starting about 1780. A convention of delegates wrote it in 1787, and the separate state legislatures ratified the text over the course of the next three years. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of accounts both supporting its creation and chronicling the debates over its provisions (including The Federalist Papers), all of which culminate in a single (if often debated) whole. There have been and there are several versions of the Laws. According to historical accounts, tribal leaders composed and passed on the Laws as oral tradition since somewhere between the 15th and 17th centuries, with most evidence pointing to the period of 1560-70. The earliest written versions date to the 19th Century, and the Iroquois councils created the most recent, most popular written version because they considered previous attempts at putting them down on paper as incorrect, though they were still using them. There are neither supporting documents nor contemporary accounts of their creation, and no clear record of any changes made. Indeed, even the authors of the most recent versions acknowledge that they have made changes or lost some of the Laws over the centuries. And, no evidence suggests that the several other tribal councils, governed by those laws, were consulted or declared their agreement with their provisions.
Limits
The Constitution enumerates the rights and responsibilities of the Federal government, some limits to its reach and authority, the limits of power of its several branches, and the terms of service for many of its members. The only specific crime mentioned in the Constitution is treason. But the Laws put no apparent limits on the governing body, but mentions specific punishments for crimes committed by council members, including murder and rape.
Vacancies
Both documents mention the filling of vacant offices, but the Constitution calls for elections, whereas the Laws provide that any council vacancy be filled by the family of the original office holder.
Summary
How anyone would confuse the words, structure, or stated purpose of the Constitution of the United States with the Laws or see any communality in their original forms is inexplicable. Though the intent may have been similar at one time (as an outline of government), the Laws we know of are little more than remembered folklore, and competing versions dilute even that. The only certain relationship between Laws of the Confederation of the Great League of Peace and the Constitution of the United States is that they were both drawn up on the same continent.
The Past Not Taken: Three Novellas
The Past Not Taken is about how we know about what happened in the past. How we understand sources, how we color them, how we ignore them, how we rely on them is important to how we understand the past.
A budding scholar finds documents in a trusted archive that might affect how we view important people…and his mentor knows about these documents, and more. What does the young scholar do…while keeping his own secrets of his past? Available from your favorite bookseller or from me if you want an autograph.
Coming Up…
Dolittle Raid Reconsidered
Battlecruisers: The Bomb
And Finally…
On 13 April:
1743: Thomas Jefferson is born in Albemarle County, Virginia. The principal author of the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson wanted as little to do with the Constitution as he could, though he would serve under it as the third President of the United States.
1941: The Soviet-Japanese Nonaggression Pact is signed in Moscow. Ending over a decade of skirmishing over the Soviet/Manchurian/Mongolian border, the pact was to last five years. The Soviets breached the accord in August 1945 a day before they invaded Manchuria, which some believe was one reason the Showa Emperor Hirohito ended the war.
And today is NATIONAL BORINQUENEERS DAY. 13 April commemorates the US Army’s 65th Infantry Regiment, Puerto Rican National Guard. The 65th racked up battle honors in WWII and Korea. Borinquine is the original Taíno Indian name for Puerto Rico. Take a moment…