John Locke's Influence On The Declaration Of Independence

John Locke was perhaps one of the most influential political philosophers of the modern period. In the Second Treatise of Government, John Locke discusses the move from a state of nature and perfect freedom to a then governed society in which authority is given to a legislative and executive power. His major ideas included liberalism and capitalism, state of nature, state of war and the desire to protect one’s property.

Constitution. John Locke’s belief of “life, liberty, and property” was the most influence on the American. Beside the Magna Carta, Petition of Rights, and English Bill of Rights, Locke also has a great influence of limit government. Locke’s Social Contract theory was to protect the basic rights of the people, it for the right of citizens to revolt against their king. Social contract is a convention between men that aims to discard the state of nature. According to Locke, the State of Nature is a state of perfect and complete liberty to behavior one's life as one best perceives fit, and free from the interfering of others. Also from Locke’s view of State of Nature, he believes it was given by

The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution are two significant documents that transformed the history of the United States. The people of the “New World” went from being ruled by British law and living in the thirteen colonies, to becoming an independent nation with a democratic government. The Declaration was written to ensure that all official ties with its mother country, Great Britain, were suspended indefinitely. It then went on to describe the concepts and ideologies behind a just and fair government. The Constitution, however, outlined how the newly democratic government would operate. In 1776, after the Second Continental Congress met in Philadelphia, a verdict was made that the only constructive way to ensure independence as a nation would be to declare independence from King George III, Parliament, and Great Britain. The colonists sought to fashion a clear, detailed document, known as the Declaration of Independence, which stated why the people chose to move in this direction as well as providing several arguments to support their case. This world-renown document is a symbol of the unity between the 13 colonies during their fight for independence during the American Revolutionary War.

The political philosopher, John Locke is known best for his ideas that influenced Thomas Jefferson while writing the Declaration of Independence. Locke’s views on government were very respected by our founding fathers, even though they were very different from the government styles of his time.

When the colonists came from Great Britain, they didn't have much knowledge on how to run a strong government. They first created the Articles of Confederation, but it didn't last very long. In the middle of the 1776, in Philadelphia, the people had chosen to have the Continental Congress meeting. During this meeting they discussed how they would like to declare independence from Great Britain. Thomas Jefferson had taken on the role of writing the Declaration of Independence.

Throughout the mid-to-late 1700s, the British Government passed a couple of laws that harshly reduced the freedoms of English colonists in America. The main purpose towards the Declaration of Independence was mainly the purpose to inform King George III about the fact that the thirteen colonies, which were before in British regulation, were now free in spite of their difference. As a result, The Declaration of Independence was written to describe why the settlers had a right to revolt against and become independent from England. It was a article that stated the ideals of the people and the aspiration to have their individual government assembled on democratic principles. The colonists biggest complaint was that laws were being agreed in England

On July 4th of 1776, a document was written to change the future of the American Colonists. The Declaration of Independence was compiled with a list of grievances against the king of England to illustrate the separation from British rule to foreign nations. This document was a means to rid themselves of a dictator and his rule, ensuring constitutional rights for all. The constitution included the Bill of Rights which protected the rights of people so powers are not in the hands of government. (Buhle, Faragher, Czitrom, and Armitage 2015, 159)

John Locke was one of the most revolutionary political thinkers of the seventeenth century, and possibly of all time. His ideas regarding natural rights had major effects on almost every western society, most notably the United States. Locke’s ideas were crucial in the crafting of the United States Constitution and more importantly, the creation of American culture, both social, governmental, and economic. Locke was the inspiration for the three branch government system in America along with the representative democracy and the government acting as a third party to protect the rights of the people and to settle disputes. Economically, America is a highly commercial society with little government interference with business and personal income other than taxes levied by the government. American society almost mirrors Locke’s idea of a commercial society with individuals spending their time working to make money in a capitalist society and then spending said money and doing whatever they please when they are not working. Locke’s influence on the United States is so substantial that he could arguably be named as one of the founding fathers. Though Locke’s philosophy has been important to American society for years, and his ideas are still used in contemporary politics, it is necessary to examine modern America and decide if Lockean philosophy is appropriate for the America of today.

The Declaration of Independence was the first document to be adopted by the founding fathers in 1776. Its main purpose was to separate from the British Monarchy. The colonists knew this would be a clear step towards a new form of practicing self-government. The form in which the colonist decided to move towards was a Democracy. Which was shown in the U.S Constitution. This meant that everyone would have a part in the new government system unlike the British where one had little to no say. With this declaration, the 13 Colonies became the United States of America.

John Locke believed that all people had the same natural rights of life, liberty, and property. As John Locke said, “...the power of the society or legislative constituted by them can never be supposed to extend farther than the common good...” (Two Treatises of Government, 1690). Locke means that the government doesn’t have any power to impose laws onto the people unless those laws are created for the common good of the people. John Locke also said that “...the legislative shall transgress this fundamental rule of society, and either by ambition, fear, folly, or corruption, endeavor to grasp themselves, or put into the hands of any other, an absolute power over the lives, liberties, and estates of the people, by this branch of trust they forfeit the power the people had put into their hands for quite contrary ends...”

John Locke is an english Enlightenment philosopher that influenced Thomas Jefferson. Locke wrote The Two Treatises of Government to explain people’s rights and why the people should overthrow the government with kings as their leaders. The influence that Locke had on Thomas Jefferson is apparent through the way Jefferson drafted the nation’s founding document, The Declaration of Independence. John Locke’s ideas from his Two Treatises on Government heavily influenced Thomas Jefferson’s rationale for the propriety of America’s separation from England.

Various documents have shaped the history of America, influencing its citizens in different ways, namely the Constitution of the United States and the Declaration of Independence, a document penned by President Thomas Jefferson and other members of the Second Continental Congress asserting the newfound independence of the original thirteen American colonies. Although the Constitution established the framework for a government that has thrived for over two hundred years, the Declaration of Independence introduced concepts that established a milestone in the development of political theory and freedom.

The Declaration of Independence was to be legal approval in 1776, to be followed by the Constitution of the United States of America. And the idea for a national framework of structural importance to American history, democracy set out in these documents were to have a great impact on legislator and political thinkers

When looking at the Declaration of Independence and the justifications which Jefferson used in order to encourage the dissolve of the ties between the United Colonies and Great Britain, it becomes apparent how much of the theories of John Locke that Jefferson used as the basis for his argument. Focusing particularly on the second paragraph of the Declaration, the arguments for the equality of each man and the formation and destruction of governments come almost directly from Locke's Second Treatise of Government. The other arguments in the Declaration of Independence deal primarily with each citizen's rights and the natural freedoms of all men, two areas that Locke also spent

John locks idea of the social contract but greatly influenced the American Revolution and the declaration of independence with his inspirational writings and demand for freedom. During his lifetime many of his ideas inspired the founding fathers to break free from the bonds of parliament and find their rights to live in an equal government. In spite of many unfair treating, to the American colonists such as salutary neglect and the onset of intolerable acts, the founding fathers created a new era of revival. Once opposition grew, American thinker's turn to the social contract and ideas of life liberty and property to base their new country around. In order to create this government, the New World thinkers used Locke as a structure for their