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The Declaration Of Independence By John Locke

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Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
– The Declaration of Independence

John Locke, perhaps the greatest single influence on early American political thought, studied and articulated truths that had been simply assumed. His experiences during the English Civil War and efforts to bring about the Glorious Revolution led him to search for ways to legitimize resistance to an overbearing king. His final argument, the Second Treatise of Government, clarifies British constitutional laws by focusing on the individual’s rights in relation to those of society, setting the stage for both the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution, and permeating Western culture.
Born to a Puritan clothier on August 29, 1632, Locke entered Oxford at the close of the English Civil War. He considered both law and religion, but eventually settled on medicine as his métier, though he never earned his doctorate. While serving as personal physician to

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