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Ian Quillen
Mrs. Blackburn
AP English 12/6th
November 18, 2011
The Impact of John Locke’s Political writings on the American Founding
From the opening words of the Declaration of Independence, and their emphasis on
“the unalienable rights” of man to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”, the
government of the United States has drawn heavily upon the ideals of the Enlightenment. Of
all of the philosophical giants of that era, the philosopher John Locke and his works
concerning political theory have been a pivotal force in the governing documents of the
founding of the United States of America. With the concept of separation of governing
powers, Locke’s work sets the stage for the three branches of government that have become
the foundation of the American political system. His ideas on the social contract and a
government that derives its powers from the consent of the governed served as the basis for
the American Revolution as well as the constitutional republic; while his thoughts on the
inherent Natural Rights of man defined the conception of rights for the rest of the world.
Locke’s ideas and words permeated both the thoughts of the founders at the time of
America’s founding and the documents that govern the nation.
Born on August 29th, 1632 in Warrington, England, John Locke set about on his
journey towards enlightenment at a young age (Egs.edu 1). He Attended the Westminster
School in London from 1646 until he was enrolled in Christ Church college at Oxford
University in 1652 where he would remain in study until his studentship was revoked by
Royal decree in 1684 (Egs.edu 1). During his time at Oxford, he would meet the Chemist
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Robert Boyd with whom he would maintain correspondence for the next thirty years
(Oregonstate.edu). While studying medicine under Sydenham in 1666, Locke was
introduced to the Earl of Shaftesbury who took the young man into his household to “[assist]
him in business, political and domestic matters.” This patronage would help sustain Locke
until the Earl lost his title in 1675(Egs.edu 1). Under the aegis of Shaftesbury, Locke would
write both the Fundamental Constitution of Carolina and the famed Essay Concerning
Human Understanding (Oregonstate.edu). In the fundamental Constitution of Carolina,
Locke began to display an emphasis on representative government and other principles of
governing that would later come to dominate his political theories(Locke §28,§32,§33).
After Shaftesbury lost his title in 1675, Locke’s life entered a turbulent stage. He fled to
France the very same year and would stay there for four years to avoid the fallout from a
particularly vehement publication against the government (Wootton 19-20). Upon his return
he was again drawn into political upheaval and likely became involved in a plot to
assassinate the king known as the “Rye House Plot.” After the plot was discovered in 1683,
Locke fled to Holland where he would remain in exile for five years as he wrote his Letter
concerning Tolerance and the final draft of his Essay concerning Human Understanding (2021). For the remainder of his life, Locke would be involved with politics, holding various
offices, such as the commissioner of the Board of Trade, and would continue to write on
monetary policy and religion (23). Finally, after a lifetime of controversy and critique, he
died on the twenty-eighth of October, 1704 (Egs.edu 2).
All of his life, Locke busied himself with various investigations into the nature of the
world in which he lived. From deep thought and inquiry into “human understanding” with a
small group of friends in 1671, to his commentary on the Reasonableness of Christianity in
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1695, Locke delved into the forces that ruled his world and sought the practical aspects of all
scenarios (Wootton 18, 23). In fact he has been attributed with commenting that people
should “regulate [their] politics, morality, and religion by the public interest” (29). One area
of particular interest to Locke’s practical mind was the study of the state of Nature and the
interactions of man with said state. To sum up his feelings on the subject, Locke declares
that
“The state of nature has a Law of Nature to govern it, which obliges everyone, and
reason, which is that law, teaches all mankind who will but consult it, that being all equal and
independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty or possessions”(Locke
and Laslett 271).
Here Locke’s works begin to intertwine with the American founding. The language of Locke
is certainly redolent of the language used in the Declaration of Independence, nearly ninety
years later, that would come to define the American mindset. Evidence of the importance of
Locke’s Natural Rights theory is not merely constrained to the Declaration; in fact, it is
pervasive throughout the American governmental system in the 18th century. Natural rights
terminology is also evident in the Virginia Declaration of Rights, as well as the first
constitutions of Pennsylvania and New Hampshire (Bassani 4-5). In fact, the concept of
natural rights is so engrained into the American system that it is expanded to include States
as individuals deserving of the same protection as that of a man(7). Locke’s influence in the
area of rights is not merely limited to the ownership of property, but extends across the
breadth of societal concerns. As he states in his second treatise on Government, “For law…
is not so much the limitation as the direction of a free and intelligent agent to his proper
interest, and prescribes no farther than is for the general good of those under that law”
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(Locke and Laslett 305). The idea that the law prescribes ones actions only to the point that
is good for those bound by the law is also an extremely important concept during the
founding of America. For instance, the Constitution of the United States is endowed with not
only the ability to be amended by its citizens (United States 15) but is also limited by a string
of amendments that is added for the express purpose of “[preventing the] misconstruction or
abuse of its[government’s] powers”(20). Such addendums were created with the express
purpose of allowing the governed to check the advances of their government if it used its
power to deprive or limit the immanent rights of men. All of these Lockean principles serve
to uphold the natural rights of the people and establish them as autonomous from and
superior to any form of government. It is upon such ideas about the inherent rights
demanded by nature that the concept of American freedom rests.
Not so far removed from the concept of the rights comes another fundamental
Lockean principle of political thought that is completely intertwined with the American
governmental system: the social contract. By the merit of its constitution, as well as the
representative nature of American democracy, the system of American government is most
adequately described as a constitutional republic (“The Social Contract” 1). Under such a
system, law and government must be derived through a mutual agreement between the
people to live together for the benefit of all. By joining together to form a society in this
manner, the individuals must surrender some of the liberty that they would hold in a state of
anarchy in order to be granted the protection of rights and safety afforded by society (1).
Thus, as Thomas Jefferson paraphrases, “Governments are instituted among Men, deriving
their just powers from the consent of the governed” (United States 35). Locke is intensely
involved in the creation and depuration of this vital theory, and it is mainly the voice of
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Locke that is heard through the founders as they began to establish their own nation (Friend
1). Since America originally arose as a nation through the overthrow of an ostensibly
tyrannical government, it is no surprise that its founders found comfort in the philosophy of
Locke. In fact, the situation in which the American revolutionaries found themselves in the
late 1770s mirrors almost identically the political climate in which Locke would produce
most of his political works. Both Locke and the founders were members of minority groups
engaged in treasonous plots against their ruler, the King of England (Wootton 20-22). Thus
the incredible similarities between the two situations made it much easier for the founders to
adopt the somewhat radical ideas of Locke’s writings. While discussing the validity of social
contract theory in his Second Treaties on Civil Government, Locke establishes that once a
government breaks the agreement of the social contract it is the right of the governed to
dissolve the bonds of government and set about to establish a new one(Friend 5) The
American Declaration of Independence again typified these Lockean sentiments when it
announces to the world that due to the tyranny of the King it “[became] necessary for one
people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another,” and in doing
so, declare their king and ruler “a Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which
may define a Tyrant,” and therefore “unfit to be the ruler of a free people”(United States 3537). Although the Declaration is an important document for American government, its
application of Locke’s social contract theory is not as recurrent or as applicable as those that
can be found in other segments of governmental documents. For instance, since a social
contract relies upon mutual fulfillment of obligations between a government and its people, it
is reasonable that evidence of the obligations of the people to the government should be
found easily as well. Perhaps the most easily ascertainable evidence of these duties lies in
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the acts of jury duty and the requirement that individuals obey laws (“The Social Contract”
6). Since individuals must surrender some of their liberties in order to obtain the protection
of the state, they must agree to follow the laws established by the government that they
uphold. To this end, the founders recognized the necessity of holding the citizen responsible
for the upholding of his or her own rights. Thus, they prescribe to Locke’s ideas that "the
end of law is not to abolish or restrain, but to preserve and enlarge freedom," and carry it
over into their framing of government (Locke and Laslett 306). The ultimate appeal to
contractualism in American political theory is the insistence on rule of law whereby all
people, even those in power, must obey the rules of law. By declaring that “This
Constitution … Shall be the supreme law of the land,” (United States 15-16) the founders
assured that the document representing the consent of the governed would remain superior to
all other laws. Interestingly enough, even the supremacy of the constitution appears to have
been directly borrowed at least in part from Locke. In his fundamental constitutions of
Carolina, Locke includes an article that allows for the nullification of a law passed by the
parliament established under the constitution if said law is determined to be in opposition to
rules outlined in the constitution (Locke §77). After the constitution, this principle would
expand greatly throughout the early 1800s and would eventually lead to the development of
the modern Judiciary.
A final, and perhaps the most widely accepted, Lockean governmental principle in
America is the concept of separation of powers. In layman’s terms, this is the principle of
dividing the power of government into three separate branches: a Legislative, a Judiciary,
and an Executive branch. Although he was not the creator of the idea, Locke certainly
championed the concept in his writings. In his tour de force on political theory Locke
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outlines a plan for the separation of governmental powers that almost directly mirrors the
system ultimately produced by the framers of the constitution. He declares that “because it
may be too great a temptation to humane frailty… for the same persons who have the power
of making laws, to have also in their hands the power to execute them,” (Locke and Laslett
364) governments should have both a legislative body for the creation of law and a separate
executive force to execute said laws. The founders establish the constitution in exactly this
way, outlining the responsibilities of the Senate and House of Representatives and vesting in
them “all Legislative powers herein granted” by the first Article of the Constitution. The
second Article proceeds much the same way, establishing a president and executive branch
who wield the power to execute the laws produced by the legislators. In the Federalist
Papers, James Madison agrees with Locke on this, declaring the “separate and distinct
exercise of the different powers of government… to be essential to the preservation of
liberty” (Madison and Hamilton 1). He relates the concept back to Locke’s ideas on the
social contract, declaring that appointments to those positions of power “should be drawn
from the same fountain of authority, the people” (1). Having less faith in the nature of Man
than Locke, the Founders carry the concept of separated powers even further by splitting the
legislature into two separate houses to further prevent abuse of Power. Locke suggests that
“there is no need that the Legislative should be always in being, not having always business
to do” (Locke and Laslett 364). To this end, the constitution only requires that the legislature
meet once a year (United States 3-4). Regarding the role of the executive in between
sessions of legislation, Locke imparts upon it “a right to make use of it [executive power], for
the good of the society…till the legislative can conveniently be assembled to provide for it”
(Locke and Laslett 374). These same principles are embodied in the enumeration of the
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powers of the president outlined in Article 2 of the constitution, especially where the
“executive order” is concerned. There are also significant parallels between the judiciary
established under the US constitution and the constitution Locke wrote for the Lords
proprietors in 1669. In language redolent of the constitution’s description of the supreme
court, Locke had created a very similar entity, which he calls the Palatine’s court. Also, like
the constitution’s enumeration of the powers of the judiciary, the Palatine’s court is still
limited by the written and supreme law of the constitution (Locke §33). Throughout all of
the sacred documents of American government, clear parallels can be drawn with the work of
Locke on nearly every fundamental governing principle, to the constitution and even the
personal writings of the founders themselves. With such commonalities it is easy to
determine that Locke has indeed greatly impacted the American founding and through it, the
rest of American history.
Philosophy is thought by many to be a useless study, with no practical applications in
“the real world;” however, this is clearly a shallow and thoughtless perspective. Since the
first days of human society, philosophers have opened the eyes of those around them to new
and unique ways to view the world in which they live. Some have arguably had greater
impacts on the world than Locke, such as Plato and Aristotle, and some would include
Newton. Be that as it may, Locke’s works have certainly made more than their fair share of
contributions to the world and continues to do so even today. When the impact that Locke’s
writing had on the foundation of America is taken into consideration with the astronomical
impact that America has made on the world, Locke may very well be the most important man
ever to walk the face of the Earth. Regardless of such hypothetical impacts, Lockean
principles have been used to justify the rectification of a plethora of societal problems. For
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instance, much of the defense for the abolition of slavery evolved from the deeply ingrained
concept of Locke’s natural rights (“Abolitionism”). Based on those ideas, logic declared that
since “all men...are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among
these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness,” (United States 35) the institution of
slavery was inherently oppositional to the American system. Others in search of equality,
such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., would later latch on to these
same ideals as well and use them as a basis for demanding that America live up to its creed
by granting equal rights for all (Ess). After America established her constitution in 1787,
other nations around the world began to follow the trend, and many of them used the
constitutional principles of America, which were derived from Locke’s work, as the basis for
their own constitutions. Thus the work of Locke not only profoundly affected the
foundations of America, but has continued to shape political theory and governments well
into the modern Era.
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Works Cited
"Abolitionism." PBS: Public Broadcasting Service. Web. 15 Nov. 2011.
Bassani, Luigi M. "The Real Jefferson." Mises Daily. Ludwig Von Mises Institute, 23 May
2002. Web. 16 Oct. 2011. <http://mises.org/daily/964>.
Ess, Dr. Charles. "Notes on John Locke." Drury.edu. Drury University. Web. 29 Oct. 2011.
Friend, Celeste. "Social Contract Theory." Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 14 Oct.
2004. Web. 25 Oct. 2011.
"John Locke." Egs.edu. The European Graduate School. Web. 12 Oct. 2011. Online.
"John Locke." Oregonstate.edu. Oregon State University. Web. 12 Oct. 2011. Online.
-Locke, John. The Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina. The Avalon Project. Web. 12 Oct.
2011.
Locke, John, and Peter Laslett. Two Treatises of Government. Cambridge [England:
Cambridge UP, 1988. Print.
Madison, James, and Alexander Hamilton. Federalist # 51. The Avalon Project. Web. 28 Oct.
2011.
"The Social Contract and Constitutional Republics." Constitution.org. Constitution Society,
1994. Web. 25 Oct. 2011.
United States. Cong. House. Joint Comittee on Printing. The Constitution of the United States
and the Declaration of Independence. 110th Cong., 1st sess. H. Doc. 110-51.
Washington, DC: U.S. G.P.O., 2009. Print
Wootton, David. "Introduction." Introduction. Political Writings. By John Locke. 2nd ed.
New York, NY: Mentor, 1993. 7-119. Print.