¶ … John Locke are found in the "Declaration of Independence"?
Three values John Locke discussed in his 1690 "Two Treatises of Government" are echoed in the wording of the "Declaration of Independence" of the American colonies, when they wrote their famous letter to George III of England. These were the rights of all human beings to life, liberty, and the pursuit of property. Locke stated that no human being, even when he or she agreed to the social contract implicit in the relationship between the ruler and the ruled, could be deprived of these three rights. Such rights were eternally part of the human condition. The temporary forfeiture of these rights to a sovereign government was only done by the voluntary will of the people of a nation -- a will that could be withdrawn.
Locke argued that to deprive a human being of their right to life was wrong. For a king to conscript a human being into involuntary servitude in His Majesty's Navy, or to force American colonists to unwillingly house troops in their homes deprived human beings of their lives and livelihoods. Similarly, to tax people unjustly, without representation, was to take away their means to life, namely their income.
Liberty, argued the American colonists, was additional being denied to the American people by the refusal of the king to give them...
To have to obey without a voice in the legislature of the government that was compelling the colonists to obey the king denied the colonists their liberty.
The last value discussed by Locke, the right to property, is reconfigured as the right to happiness in the Declaration of Independence. Why is this so? Happiness is not simply the right of ownership, but the right of self-determination, the right to earn money by trade, as well as security in the already delineated rights of liberty and life. Although the sovereign was not dwelling upon the territory or property of the colonists, he was impinging upon their happiness -- hence, the final words of the Declaration's echoing of Locke.
Locke's fundamental contention was that all rulers derived their power only from the consent of the people. The Declaration withdrew that consent, arguing that Britain had violated the colonist's civil and natural laws to life, liberty, and happiness. Thus, as the king's power had become unrepresentative, tyrannical and unjust, the colonies could revolt
Second Essay
How did slavery as discussed by Locke differ from the way it was practiced in the United States?
The philosophical definition of slavery, the methods by which it was practiced,…
