How wartime Britain planned to give the US a copy of Magna Carta

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/11/wartime-britain-planned-us-copy-of-magna-carta

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A secret British plan to butter up the US during the second world war by handing over a copy of Magna Carta has been revealed by the British Library.

The library will put on display for the first time government papers documenting a remarkable plot for a Magna Carta manuscript owned by Lincoln cathedral to be gifted to the Americans.

“It’s incredible isn’t it? What were they thinking?” said Julian Harrison, co-curator of the British Library’s Magna Carta exhibition, marking the 800th anniversary of the sealing of one of the most important documents in the world.

“The plan was to persuade the Americans to join the war effort,” he said. “What greater gift could you give the American people than a manuscript of Magna Carta, an old piece of parchment in an ancient language which was part of our common heritage?”

The discussions were taking place during the height of the Blitz and the idea was heavily pushed by the Foreign Office.

One official wrote: “We are regarded as a cold-blooded, calculating people and our failure to show warmth – to ‘say it with flowers’ – is perhaps the main reason why American respect for us never quite ripens into a warm, uncalculating friendship – such as they have felt for the French.”

It would have benefits beyond the war, the mandarin somewhat optimistically continued. “In post-war years, when the day of reckoning comes, it will always be remembered to our credit that, though we may be unable to face our debts, nevertheless we freely gave the most sacred of our national emblems.

“And, after all, we possess four copies of the Magna Carta.”

The New World lacks the dimension of time; its inhabitants live almost entirely in the present

Churchill was also on board and the documents on display, on loan from the National Archives, include his approving annotations.

Giving the manuscript, one memo reads, was “the only really adequate gesture which it is in our power to make in return for the means to preserve our country”.

Of course, one problem would always be getting the approval of Lincoln cathedral to relinquish perhaps its most treasured possession. The solution offered was giving the dean and chapter a damaged manuscript in the British museum, one of two it owned, plus £100,000 of war bonds. Or alternatively £250,000 in war bonds.

The supporting papers point out how appreciative the Americans would be. “In some respects Magna Carta has a more vivid appeal for the average American than for the average Englishman.

“For one thing, Americans are more conscious of their national origins than we are. England emerged out of a cloud of myth lost in antiquity. America was created in 1776 by a document; the most precious national relic they possess.”

The memo goes on: “The New World lacks the dimension of time; its inhabitants live almost entirely in the present and they crave tangible evidence of their early European background much as the nouveau riche crave ancestors.”

The idea was also supported by Leo Amery, the secretary of state for India from 1940 to 1945, who points out: “Lincoln Cathedral needs a lot of money for restoration and it ought not to be impossible to overcome their resistance.”

Amery suggests that Churchill make the announcement on Magna Carta day, 15 June, in a radio broadcast – a suggestion with which the prime minister agrees.

The plan seemed to make extra sense since the Lincoln Magna Carta was already in the US, attracting crowds at the British pavilion of the World Fair in New York.

Of course, the Lincoln Magna Carta was never gifted but did spend the war stranded, locked up in Fort Knox. The plan seems to have been quickly and quietly dropped once the complicated logistics became clear. It was never the nation’s to give away, and it would have required acts of parliament.

The secret plan came to light in 2007 and knowledge of it has been restricted to small academic circles.

What it does is shine a light on the enduring importance of Magna Carta, a theme more widely explored in the British Library show that opens to the public on Friday.

The show will include important loans from the US, including Thomas Jefferson’s handwritten copy of the Declaration of Independence and the Delaware copy of the US Bill of Rights, both of which the US wants back.