Where
did our Founders get the idea that they had the right to cut off all ties from
England? Our Founders were very learned men. They read the ideas of the current
political thinkers of their day known as the Enlightenment Thinkers/Philosophers.
Some of the most influential thinkers: Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Jean-Jacques
Rousseau, and Charles de Montesquieu had the largest influence on our founders.
The
Enlightenment Philosophers applied a scientific/reasoned approach to government.
They questioned where the authority to govern came from. Is the right to govern
a hereditary right or is it a contract between the rulers and the people? They
also questioned what rights citizens had in a country and what rights the
citizens had if they were unhappy with the government.
In
addition to reading the Enlightenment Thinkers many of our Founders were
members of congregational churches. Congregational churches differed from the
Church of England/Roman Catholic Church in government. In the Church of
England/Roman Catholic Church there was one supreme leader who was ultimately
responsible for all decisions either the king or the pope. In congregational
churches the ultimate authority rested in the individual congregations. Each
congregation was accountable to no one but God; therefore, the congregation had
a voice in the decisions of their local church/congregation. The increased
voice in religious life led to increased participation in the government.
The
problem? King George of England did not agree with the ideas of the
Enlightenment Philosophers or of the congregational churches. He believed he
was the ultimate authority and that his decisions, with Parliaments approval,
were the law. The colonists should be grateful for living under the benevolent
authority of England. England had fought a series of wars, which were quite
costly. Since the French and Indian Wars were fought in the colonies it was
only reasonable that the colonists should pay for the expense of the war and
the resulting cost of maintaining troops in the colonies. The colonists
believed they had a right to vote on all tax increases and should have a voice
in the governing of their particular colonies.
Colonists, (after reading the enlightenment thinkers) believing they had the right to question the king’s decisions, organized
resistance against the king’s taxes. King George responded with increasingly
more restricting laws and imposing on property rights (quartering troops).
The
Continental Congress met to decide how they would respond to the king’s
increasing restrictions on their liberty. The debate boiled down to sending a
list of grievances to the king or to break ties to Britain and create a whole
new nation. If they were to be successful it would be the first time in history
that a colony was able to cut ties with their sovereign. Many of the delegates
believed the social contract between the colonies and England had been broken
therefore they had the right to break the contract.
The
final decision was for a committee to compose a declaration to the king to inform
him of the violations to the social contract. Thomas Jefferson composed the Declaration of Independence.
Enlightenment Thinkers
John Locke
John Locke wrote two
treatises of government in 1690. In these treatises he said that the government
should be like a contract or agreement between the people and the ruler. The
ruler is given the power to govern the country as long as he doesn't abuse his
position. In brief, Locke argued
that sovereignty did not reside in the state but with the people, and that the
state is supreme, but only if it is bound by civil and what he called
"natural" law. If the ruler didn't keep the contract, the people
could overthrow the government. Locke also believed that the people were
entitled to natural rights such as life, liberty and the protection of
their property. Many of Locke's
political ideas, such as those relating to natural rights, property rights, the
duty of the government to protect these rights, and the rule of the majority,
were later embodied in the U.S. Constitution.
Thomas Hobbes
In 1651, Hobbes wrote his most famous work, entitled
Leviathan. In it, he argued that people were naturally wicked and could
not be trusted to govern.
Therefore, Hobbes believed that an absolute monarchy-a government that
gave all power to a king or queen-was best.
Hobbes believed that humans
were basically selfish creatures who would do anything to better their
position. Left to themselves, he thought, people would act on their evil
impulses. According to Hobbes, people therefore should not be trusted to make
decisions on their own. In addition, Hobbes felt that nations, like people,
were selfishly motivated. To Hobbes, each country was in a constant battle for
power and wealth. To prove his point, Hobbes wrote, "If men are naturally
in a state of war, why do they always carry arms and why do they have
keys to lock their doors?"
Governments were created,
according to Hobbes, to protect people from their own selfishness and evil. The
best government was one that had the great power of a leviathan, or sea
monster. Hobbes believed in the rule of a king because he felt a country needed
an authority figure to provide direction and leadership. Hobbes understanding of government supported the old way of rule. His ideas were different from many of the other enlightenment thinkers.
Rousseau
In 1762 Rousseau published The Social Contract, a masterwork of political science that
describes a just society in which liberty and legality are drawn from what he
terms the general will. According
to Rousseau, a society consists of a collection of free and rational beings
living in a given community. It is
the collective action of this group that determines its contribution to social
development and to humanity. People therefore must be free and equal before the law. Since
only those individuals who are free and equal under the law can enter into a social contract to form the general will, the general will becomes
the moral force or authority, and in turn, the final arbiter of right and
wrong.
Montesquieu
Montesquieu’s book, On the Spirit of Laws, published in 1748, was his most famous
work. It outlined his ideas on how
government would best work. He
believed that all things were made up of rules or laws that never changed. He set out to study these laws
scientifically with the hope that knowledge of the laws of government would
reduce the problems of society and improve human life. According to Montesquieu, there were
three types of government: a monarchy (ruled by a king or queen), a republic (ruled by an elected leader),
and a despotism (ruled by a dictator).
Montesquieu believed that a government that was elected by the people
was the best form of government.
He argued that the best government would be one in which power was
balanced among three groups of officials-and idea he called “separation of powers.” His ideas became the basis for the
United States Constitution.
Key Ideas of Locke:
• The idea of self-government favored over absolute monarchy.
• All humans have the same natural rights to seek life, liberty and property.
• All humans have a responsibility not to intrude on the rights of others.
• Government represents a social contract between the ruler and the people.
• The purpose of government is to protect people’s natural rights.
• If it doesn’t, the people have the right to overthrow that government.
• Government’s power comes from the consent of the people.
Key Ideas of Rousseau:
• People are born free but are often kept in chains by their social institutions.
• People give up some of their freedom in exchange for the common good.
• The general will or the will of the majority must take priority over individual will.
• Government should be formed by the people and guided by the general will of society.
• All people are equal and titles of nobility should be abolished.
• Every system of government should have as its objectives two things, liberty and
equality.
Key Ideas of Montesquieu:
• Many forms of government can work well.
• The liberty of the people should be protected from corrupt leaders.
• Freedom for the people should be sought and tyranny in any form should be opposed.
• Separation of powers in government is the key to successfully keeping one person or
group from obtaining too much power.
• Having three branches of government would separate the power and serve as a check of
each other.
Key Ideas of the Declaration of Independence:
• All men are created equal.
• Men have inalienable rights such as life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
• Governments are instituted to protect these rights.
• Governments derive their powers from the consent of the governed.
• If a government takes away people’s natural rights, the people have a right to abolish it.
• People have a right to establish a new government that will protect their natural
