John Locke and the Declaration of Independence Essay

In 1689, John Locke published, what proved to be, a blue-chip docu workforcet for the the Statesn Revolution as well as liveliness in present day America, known as the fleck Treatise of Govern workforcet. In his docu workforcet he creates a specimen of his ideal civil governing body, which is created by the mint to ensure their natural unspoileds of support, liberty, and plaza. This disposal may also be dissolved upon the decision of the people, when it is believed that the sovereignty has ceased to function properly.Lockes model government is based on his idea of the separate of constitution perfect freedom, the state both men are in naturally. This idea infers that all men will govern themselves accordingly however chaos and anarchy would ever so occur. Men, in the state of nature, all have the drive and destiny to acquire more than which they already possess. Men, also, have the same capabilities of doing so, which ultimately creates strife between men. This is whe re the idea of the placid society comes into play. The politic society is where men forfeit their individual right to govern themselves, and instead create a social contract amongst one a nonher. The social contract is a stuffing agreement between the government and the governed, in which the governed agree to sacrifice their individual political power and obey laws, while the government agrees to provide certificate of property and levy/create laws that promote the common good. The government is interdict from doing which the governed does not consent nor comply with.Once government goes above or beyond its prescribed capabilities, it is then that it should be dissolved. Locke insists the government may be dissolved in all instance, if does not receive consent from its governed during legislative alteration, executive hindering its legislative, alteration of elective process the executive, failure to enforce existing laws, and subjection to foreign powers.It is evident that, while Thomas Jefferson was formulating his document, The resolving power of Independence, he was highly influenced by Lockes views at bottom his Second Treatise of Government. In fact, the preamble to The solution of Independence encompasses Lockes ideas of the state of nature and the politic society as demonstrated hereWe hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created catch that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights that among these are life liberty and the spare-time activity 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(prenominal) principles, and organizing it powers in such form, as to them shall seem most analogously to demand their safety and h appiness.This is directly parallel to what Locke states in his Second Treatise to the Government, with the insertion of property in place of happiness, when he says Men being, as has been said, by nature, all free, equal, and independent, no one can be put out of this estate, and subjected to the political power of an new(prenominal), without his own consent other instance of parallelism is within the resolution of Independences list of grievances and Lockes grounds for dissolution. Jefferson states that He (The big businessman of Great Britain) has refused his assent to laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the popular good. He has refused for a long time, after such dissolution, to cause others to be elected He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burned our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people. All of these grievances are considered by Locke, to be just reasons for the dissolution of the veritable government.Even though, both documents appear to be quite s imilar, there is a slight difference. Lockes views are more individualistic. He concentrates on the rights and duties of the individual. time on the other hand, Jeffersons main focus is on the government and its rights and limitations. Both proved to be highly effective in distributively owns instance. Case in point, on July 4, 1776, that The Declaration of Independence was formally adopted by the Continental Congress and the American Revolution officially began.Another important issue to be discussed is slaveholding. In the Second Treatise of Government, Locke maintains that the perfect delimitate of thralldom is based upon consent. That man is to be free from any A-one power on earth, and not to be under the will or legislative authority of man, but to have only if the law of nature for his rule yet having by his fault forfeited his own life by some act that deserves death, he to whom he has forfeited it may, when he has him in his power, delay to take it and make use of hi m to his own redevelopment Locke essentially is saying slavery is a consensual debt to someone and should not be used in any other instance.The topic of slavery was not include within the embodiment of The Declaration of Independence. In America, slavery was not consistent with Lockes view of doubtful servitude. Instead, slaves were brought over from other countries, or born into it themselves and it became a common, harsh way of life for African Americans of that time. A prime example would be Frederick Douglass a self educated, flee slave, who was a part of the abolitionist movement during the pre-civil war era. He believed that the Declaration of Independence, the document itself and its ideas, did not apply to he and his people, for they were not free. In his oration, what to pronounce to the Slave is the Fourth of July, he declares thatI am not included within the pale of this glorious anniversary Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice, are not enjoyed in common the rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence is shared by you and not by me.It is clear that Frederick Douglass shows a great deal of discontent towards the 4th of July and what it represents to Americans because it doesnt represent anything for African Americans but after a great deal of effort and a civil war, slavery was abolished in 1868 with the 14th Amendment to the Constitution.During the abolitionist movement, there was another prominent cause in America, the womens movement. The women of the time, Lucretia Mott for example, felt that women shared a similar cause with the African Americans, in that they were treated unfairly and suffered from inequality in society. They wanted equal rights, mainly the right to vote. The Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions was a Motts response to the Declaration of Independence a parody of the rights of man, the Caucasian man in particular. It is in this document that she demonstrates how women are deprived of the rights to liberty, justice, and property. After many rallies and protest, women were granted the right to vote in 1919 under Amendment XIX.The next great movement of Americas history was the Civil Rights Movement. This forged many great leadership such as Malcolm X and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Both men shared t opposite views on which actions to take to promote their cause. Dr. King advocated the non-violent approach. He and his followers held rallies and protests and tried to educate America about this circulating(prenominal) state of inequality and segregation through pamphlets and orations. One of Dr. Kings most famous pieces was a Letter from a Birmingham Jail. He too, like Mott, used words in order to express the current control of deprivation of life, liberty, and property.All of these great movements would have been impossible, if it were not for Lockes Second Treatise of Government. This document cr eated what became a domino effect of social revolutions in the topographic point years after its publication and is a valuable source of model democratic system still today.