Each July 4th, Americans celebrate the “birthday” of the Declaration of Independence. But little is ever said on August 29th about another birthday--that of John Locke, in 1632, without whom the Declaration of Independence as we know it would not exist. Locke’s 1689 Second Treatise on Government was the origin of so much of the reasoning and language in our founding document that Thomas Jefferson was accused of plagiarizing from him. The Declaration of Independence is based on the concepts of natural law; equal, inalienable rights; strictly limited government; the consent of the governed; and the right to reject a government which has usurped its just powers. These all connect back to Locke.
- Natural Law
- “...all men are naturally in...a state of perfect freedom to order their actions, and dispose of their possessions and persons, as they see fit, within the bounds of the law of nature, without asking leave, or depending upon the will of any other man.”
- “But though this be a state of liberty, yet it is not a state of license: though man in that state have an uncontrollable liberty to dispose of his person or possessions...The state of nature has a law of nature to govern it...that being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions.”
- “Man...hath by nature a power...to preserve his property, that is, his life, liberty and estate, against the injuries and attempts of other men...”
- “...no body has an absolute arbitrary power...to take away the life or property of another...having in the state of nature no arbitrary power over the life, liberty, or possession of another...Their power, in the utmost bounds of it, is limited to the public good of the society.” Equal and Inalienable Rights
- “...all men by nature are equal...that equal right, that every man hath, to his natural freedom, without being subjected to the will or authority of any other man.”
- “..the power of the society, or legislative constituted by them, can never be supposed to extend farther than the common good; but is obliged to secure every man=s property...”
- “The legislative acts against the trust reposed in them, when they endeavor to invade the property of the subject, and to make themselves, or any part of the community, masters, or arbitrary disposers of the lives, liberties, or fortunes of the people.”
- “...every man has a property in his own person: this no body has any right to but himself.”
- “...no body can desire to have me in his absolute power, unless it be to compel me by force to that which is against the right of my freedom...”
- “...the end of law is not to abolish or restrain, but to preserve and enlarge freedom...for liberty is, to be free from restraint and violence from others...a liberty to dispose, and order as he wish, his person, actions, possessions, and his whole property…” Strictly Limited Government
- “…man...seeks out, and is willing to join in society with others...for the mutual preservation of their lives, liberties and estates, which I call by their general name, property. The great and chief end, therefore, of men=s uniting…and putting themselves under government, is the preservation of their property.”
- “...for all the power of government has, being only for the good of the society...ought to be exercised by established and promulgated laws; that both the people may know their duty, and be safe and secure within the limits of the law; and the rulers too kept within their bounds, and not be tempted, by the power they have in their hands, to employ it to such purposes, and by such measures as they would not have known, and own not willingly.”
- “Political power...can have no other end or measure...but to preserve the members of that society in their lives, liberties, and possessions; and so cannot be an absolute, arbitrary power over their lives and fortunes, which are as much as possible to be preserved...” Consent of the Governed
- “Political power...has its original only from compact and agreement, and the mutual consent of those who make up the community.”
- “The supreme power cannot take from any man any part of his property without his own consent: for the preservation of property being the end of government, and that for which men enter society...”
- “...for if any one shall claim a power to lay and levy taxes on the people, by his own authority, and without such consent of the people, he thereby invades the fundamental law of property, and subverts the end of government...”
- “...that which is absolutely necessary to its being a lawBthe consent of the society, over whom no body can have a power to make laws, but by their own consent, and by authority received by them...” The Right to Overthrow Government
- “...those who were forced to submit to the yoke of a government by constraint, have always a right to shake it off, and free themselves from the usurpation or tyranny which the sword hath brought in upon them, till their rulers put them under such a frame of government as they willingly and of choice consent to...”
- “...using force upon the people without authority, and contrary to the trust put in him that does so, is a state of war with the people...”
- “...the community perpetually retains a supreme power of saving themselves from...designs against the liberties and properties of the subject...they will always have a right...to rid themselves of those, who invade this fundamental, sacred, and unalterable law of self-preservation, for which they entered society.”
- “...shaking off a power, which force, and not right, hath set over any one, though it hath the name of rebellion, yet is no offense before God...”
- “...whenever the legislators endeavor to take away, and destroy the property of people, or to reduce them to slavery under arbitrary power, they put themselves into a state of war with the people, who are thereupon absolved from any further obedience...by this breach of trust they forfeit the power the people had put into their hands for quite contrary ends...”
- “...the people...are absolved from obedience when illegal attempts are made upon their liberties or properties, and may oppose the unlawful violence of those who were their magistrates, when they invade their properties contrary to the trust put in them...”
- “The end of government is the good of mankind; and which is best for mankind, that the people should be always exposed to the boundless will of tyranny, or that the rulers should be sometimes liable to be opposed, when they grow exorbitant in the use of their power, and employ it for the destruction, and not for the preservation of the properties of the people?”
John Locke was one of the greatest sources of the vision that inspired America’s founders. And his ideas are no less worthy of careful consideration and celebration today, in an America that has drifted far from that vision.
