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America was not always the “land of the free,” but it has always been the “home of the brave.” Tensions between the British government and the American colonists had been gradually rising as each major event hit the colonists harder and harder each time, so many men believed this was an appropriate time to express their opinions. There was a period was known as “The Age of Enlightenment,” and a result of this era was John Locke’s Social Contract. Little did Locke know that this document would end up as the foundation of American independence. The frequently known concepts originating from John Locke are those of life, liberty, and property, but two of his other statements include: the idea that the only important role of the state is to ensure that justice is seen to be done and that if the absolute power abuses his power the people would have the right to even kill such rulers and their servants. These ideas inspired Thomas Jefferson to include a summary of those ideas in The Declaration of Independence which would eventually lead to the liberation from the power of the British government. …show more content…
So, Thomas Jefferson rephrased that statement into the words we know from The Declaration of Independence today, “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Whether “property” or the “pursuit of happiness,” these were both considered natural rights, which is the first part of The Declaration of Independence, but what composes the rest of the constitution are the grievances against King George III, and the statement that we, the people, have the power to not let a higher power to hold authority
The American ideals in regards to freedom along with other human rights are not unique to the United States. In fact many of these freedoms and other rights found within the American declaration of independence were in fact copied from the Englishmen John Locke who wrote extensively on the subject nearly a century before the declaration even came into existence. John Locke was many things throughout his life mainly a philosopher and was also heavily involved in politics and psychology. This is evident throughout Locke’s writings. One of his most renowned works is his Second Treatise of Civil Government in which he discusses his views in regard to the state of nature, why people form governments and the benefits they gain from doing so, along with analyzing the extent of parliament’s
Jefferson’s language in the Declaration of Independence shows clear influence from Locke and his theory of Life, Liberty, and Property. Locke’s idea of government is one that sets out to protect these rights and once a government becomes more destructive than useful it is the right of the people to dissolve the government and start over from scratch. It can be seen that Jefferson’s view of government, through his criticisms toward the British Parliament, are in direct alignment with Locke’s.
The authors of the Virginia Declaration of Rights, the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Paine’s Common Sense and the United States Constitution pulled from many different sources during the infancy of these invaluable documents. They used pieces such as Hobbes’ Leviathan, Locke’s Second Treatise on Government, Rousseau’s Of The Social Contract, and Montesquieu’s The Spirit of the Laws as inspiration for America’s fundamental government. Each of these influential political philosophers were instrumental in making our government what it is today. Hobbes brought the ideas of natural equality, a strong, powerful government, and the principle that governments must be able to protect the people to American political philosophy. Locke added that
Specifically, the idea that man is endowed with certain liberties that were granted by God and/or nature was advocated by the Enlightenment thinkers. Many people took aim at arbitrary governments and the “divine right of kings.” John Locke in return offered principles of constructing a constitutional government, a contract between rulers and the ruled. In Document 7, John Locke in The Two Treatises of Government stated that men consent to enter society in order to preserve their natural rights such as life, liberty, and property. The government should protect people's natural rights and if not, then the people can remove their consent because the government derives its power from the consent of the people. John Locke wrote during the time period of the Enlightenment; therefore, his thoughts were based on the emerging idea of individualism furthermore man's inherent rights and powers. Thomas Jefferson wrote in The Declaration of Independence (Document 9) that are all men are created equal and that they are endowed with certain natural rights. The Declaration of Independence was written because of England's tyrannical rule over the American colonies thus, the citizens felt that their natural rights were being abused by the English government. Individualism was indeed formed in response to the skepticism of the Church as
The character of the United States is illuminated by the Declaration of Independence. Thomas Jefferson wanted to build a government where people are free and where the government “derives its power from the consent of the governed and it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it” (Jefferson, 247). T...
There are many different ways in which the Enlightenment affected the Declaration of Independence and the U.S Constitution. One way was the by the idea of a Social Contract; an agreement by which human beings are said to have abandoned the "state of nature" in order to form the society in which they now live. HOBBES, LOCKE, and J.J. ROUSSEAU each developed differing versions of the social contract, but all agreed that certain freedoms had been surrendered for society's protection and that the government has definite responsibilities to its citizens. Locke believed that governments were formed to protect the natural rights of men, and that overthrowing a government that did not protect these rights was not only a right, but also an obligation. His thoughts influenced many revolutionary pamphlets and documents, including the Virginia Constitution of 1776, and the Declaration of Independence. The Bill of Rights was created as a listing of the rights granted to citizens, the Bill of Rights serves to protect the people from a too powerful government. These civil rights granted to U.S. Citizens are included in the first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution. Additionally, Locke’s ideas about checks and balances and the division of church and state were later embodied in the U.S. Constitution as well. The Constitution replaced a more weakly organized system of government as outlined under the Articles of Confederation.
In the United States' Declaration of Independence the founding fathers stated: "…held certain truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness."
On June 12, 1776, in Williamsburg, Virginia, the Virginia Convention unanimously agreed to adopt George Mason’s declaration of rights, now known as the Virginia Declaration of Rights. Much of the Virginia Declaration was influenced by the writings of John Locke. During the seventeenth century, shortly after King James II was overthrown, John Locke wrote the Second Treatise of Civil Government to explain why King James’s II overthrow was justifiable. Through much of Locke’s writings, his main idea was how man was born with natural rights, specifically property and liberty. This can be seen when he writes “the state of nature has a law of nature to govern it, which obliges every one: and reason, which is that law, teaches all mankind, who will but consult it, that being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions.” This influences George Mason in section one where he wrote “ That all men are by nature equally free and independent and have certain inherent rights, of which, when they enter into a state of society, they cannot, by any compact, deprive or divest their posterity; namely, the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety.” Locke also speaks about how the legislative gets its power from “the hands where the community placed it.” George Manson shows his influence on this in section two where he writes “That all power is vested in, and consequently derived from, the people; that magistrates are their trustees and servants and at all times amenable to them.” Not only was the Virginia Declaration of Rights an important piece of our history of America, but it leads to and influenced a...
What John Locke was concerned about was the lack of limitations on the sovereign authority. During Locke’s time the world was surrounded by the monarch’s constitutional violations of liberty toward the end of the seventeenth century. He believed that people in their natural state enjoy certain natural, inalienable rights, particularly those to life, liberty and property. Locke described a kind of social contract whereby any number of people, who are able to abide by the majority rule, unanimously unite to affect their common purposes. The...
Here the government was instituted only by “consent of the governed”, making it clear that Jefferson thought that the only way a ruler or ruling body could be seen as legitimate was if they were elected by the people (Cummings 2015, 64). This was a direct critique of the British King’s rule over the Colonies. For Jefferson, not only was British rule oppressive but also completely illegitimate as it was a system of rulership that did not source its power from the people (Cummings 2015, 65). In addition, the introduction of popular sovereignty as a core governing principle also lent itself to the idea of limited government. If the government “derviv[ed] their just powers” from the people, not from divine authority, as it was with Britain and other monarchies, then it followed that the government would only be able to exercise powers in the areas allocated by the people and, therefore, would be limited to their purview alone (Cummings 2015, 64). This was an important point because it ensured the America would never be under the illegitimate rule of a tyrant again. This idea directly connected to the final important principle of government the Declaration laid out; the right to revolution. If a government had become “destructive of these ends”, such as failing to protect the people’s rights or abusing the
Locke and Rousseau present themselves as two very distinct thinkers. They both use similar terms, but conceptualize them differently to fulfill very different purposes. As such, one ought not be surprised that the two theorists do not understand liberty in the same way. Locke discusses liberty on an individual scale, with personal freedom being guaranteed by laws and institutions created in civil society. By comparison, Rousseau’s conception portrays liberty as an affair of the entire political community, and is best captured by the notion of self-rule. The distinctions, but also the similarities between Locke and Rousseau’s conceptions can be clarified by examining the role of liberty in each theorist’s proposed state of nature and civil society, the concepts with which each theorist associates liberty, and the means of ensuring and safeguarding liberty that each theorist devises.
John Locke, one of the leading philosophers of the European Enlightenment was very important when it came to political thought in the United States. His ideas of the reasons, nature, and limits of the government became especially important in the development of the Constitution. In one of his most famous writings of that time, Two Treatises on Government (1689), Locke established a theory where personal liberty could coexist with political power ; meaning that the people would agree to obey the government and in return, the government would have the responsibility of respecting the people’s natural rights. In other words, he laid out a social contract theory that provided the philosophy and source of a governing author...
Jefferson's text was extremely taboo especially without the support of a reputable country. Thomas Jefferson's words were also courageous and daring. In the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson used the words in the preamble - life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness - in which he uses happiness to mean property. He also gives examples of the tyrant qualities King George possesses and attacks the king's character and his skills as a leader.
The problem is to find a form of association … in which each, while uniting
The Founding Fathers of the United States relied heavily on many of the principles taught by John Locke. Many of the principles of Locke’s Second Treatise of Government may easily be discovered in the Declaration of Independence with some minor differences in wording and order. Many of the ideas of the proper role of government, as found in the Constitution of the United States, may be discovered in the study of Locke. In order to understand the foundation of the United States, it is vital that one studies Locke. A few ideas from Hume may be found but the real influence was from Locke. Rousseau, on the other hand, had none.