John Locke and Natural Law:
John Locke, 1632-1704, was an English Enlightenment philosopher. He believed that people once lived in a state of
nature, which means without laws or government. Locke wrote about the idea of the “social contract.” The Social
Contract was when people form governments and give up their natural rights from their state of nature in order to
receive the key rights of life, liberty and property. All of this depends on the concept of the “consent of the
governed,” that the people are an active part of the contract and participate on their own accord.
Thomas Jefferson:
Thomas Jefferson, 1743-1826, was a Virginia lawyer who was a delegate to the Continental Congress, the writer of
the Declaration of Independence, a governor of Virginia, ambassador to France and Secretary of State under
President George Washington. He was elected the third President of the United States, serving two terms in this
highest office in the land.
Locke and Jefferson
Jefferson was a great admirer of Locke’s writings, and once wrote that Locke was
“one of the three greatest men that ever lived”. Historians have wondered how
much Locke’s writings influenced Jefferson’s writing of the Declaration of
Independence. Referring to the origin of the Declaration, Jefferson wrote:
“Neither aiming at originality of principle or sentiment, nor yet copied from any
particular and previous writing, it was intended to be an expression of the
American mind…”
Keeping Jefferson’s words in mind, read the following passage from John Locke
where he describes the conditions under which people are justified in overthrowing their government:
John Locke’s Second Treatise on Government
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“whenever the Legislators endeavor to take away, and destroy the Property of the 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 farther Obedience”
•
“when the Government is dissolved, the People are at liberty to provide for themselves, by erecting a new
Legislative, differing from the other, by the change of Persons, or Form, or both as they shall find it most for their
safety and good.”
Declaration of Independence
Now compare Locke’s words to a passage from the Declaration of Independence, in which Jefferson offers a
justification for revolution.
“We hold these 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.--That to secure
these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,
--That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter
or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its
powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”