John Locke and the Declaration of Independence Essay

In 1689, John Locke published, what proved to be, a valuable muniment for the American Revolution as well as life in present day America, cognize as the Second Treatise of Goernment. In his document he creates a model of his ideal civil controlment, which is created by the people to ensure their natural recompenses of life, emancipation, and property. This rankment may also be dissolved upon the decision of the people, when it is believed that the reign has ceased to function properly.Lockes model governing is based on his idea of the state of nature improve freedom, the state all men are in naturally. This idea infers that all men will govern themselves accordingly however chaos and anarchy would always occur. manpower, in the state of nature, all digest the drive and want to acquire more than which they already possess. Men, also, have got the same capabilities of doing so, which ultimately creates conflict betwixt men. This is where the idea of the fluent society com es into play. The politic society is where men forfeit their individual right to govern themselves, and instead create a social contract amongst one another. The social contract is a backbone agreement between the politics and the governed, in which the governed agree to sacrifice their individual governmental power and chase laws, while the government agrees to provide protection of property and enforce/create laws that promote the common good. The government is prohibited from doing which the governed does not consent nor comply with.Once government goes above or beyond its official capabilities, it is then that it should be dissolved. Locke insists the government may be dissolved in any instance, if does not observe consent from its governed during legislative alteration, executive hindering its legislative, alteration of elective process the executive, failure to enforce real laws, and subjection to foreign powers.It is evident that, while Thomas Jefferson was formulating his document, The Declaration of Independence, he was highly influenced by Lockes views at heart his Second Treatise of Government. In fact, the preamble to The Declaration 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 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 respectable 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 institution on such principles, and organizing it powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to affect their synthetic rubber and happiness.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 another, without his own consentAnother instance of parallelism is within the Declaration of Independences list of grievances and Lockes grounds for dissolution. Jefferson states that He (The King of Great Britain) has ref apply his assent to laws, the most wholesome and necessity for the public good. He has refused for a long time, aft(prenominal) 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 current government.Even though, both documents appear to be quite alike(p), there is a tripping difference. Lockes views are more ind ividualistic. He concentrates on the rights and duties of the individual. While on the other hand, Jeffersons main(prenominal) focus is on the government and its rights and limitations. both(prenominal) proved to be highly effective in individually owns instance. Case in point, on July 4, 1776, that The Declaration of Independence was formally adopted by the Continental relation back and the American Revolution officially began.Another important issue to be discussed is slavery. In the Second Treatise of Government, Locke maintains that the complete(a) condition of slavery is based upon consent. That man is to be free from any superior power on earth, and not to be under the will or legislative authority of man, but to have provided 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 nonplus use of him to his own service Locke essen tially is saying slavery is a consensual debt to someone and should not be used in any other instance.The topic of slavery was not included 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 blossoming example would be Frederick Douglass a self educated, escaped slave, who was a part of the abolitionist movement during the pre-civil warfare 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 Say to the striver is the Fourth of July, he declares thatI am not included within the pale of this glorious day of remembrance 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, primarily 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 flannel man in particular. It is in this document th at 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 courtly Rights Movement. This forged many great leaders 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 pursual held rallies and protests and tried to educate America about this current state of inequality and segregation through pamphlets and orations. unrivalled 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 condition 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 created what became a domino effec t of social revolutions in the have a bun in the oven years after its publication and is a valuable source of model democratic system nevertheless today.