Ameritopia_ The Unmaking of America - Mark R. Levin [44]
Locke summed up the purpose of government this way: “Absolute arbitrary power, can neither of them consist with the ends of society and government, which men would not quit the freedom of the state of nature for, and tie themselves up under, were it not to preserve their lives, liberties and fortunes, and by stated rules of right and property to secure their peace and quiet.… For all the power the government has, being only for the good of the society, as it ought not to be arbitrary and at pleasure, so it ought to be exercised by established and promulgated laws, and the rulers too, kept within their bounds.…” (11, 137)
Locke’s extraordinary insight into the nature of man, the sovereignty of the individual, and the ideological threats that have and will menace the civil society by those who exercise governmental authority is much more than an academic undertaking. Few before Locke or since have had such a thorough grasp of the human condition and enormous influence on Western civilization.
CHAPTER SEVEN
THE INFLUENCE OF LOCKE ON THE FOUNDERS
IN 1776, THE CONTINENTAL Congress established the Committee of Five to draft a declaration to the world setting forth the American colonies’ justification for seeking independence from Great Britain. It appointed John Adams of Massachusetts, Roger Sherman of Connecticut, Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania, Robert R. Livingston of New York,1 and Thomas Jefferson of Virginia. The committee assigned Jefferson the task of drafting the original version. Jefferson’s draft was modified by Franklin and Adams and submitted to Congress. Congress made further modifications. But the basic document remained largely unchanged from Jefferson’s version.
For the purposes of this discussion, it is important to recognize the profound influence Locke’s Second Treatise had on the Founders, especially Jefferson. The Declaration of Independence represents the most prominent, official, consensus position of the Founders’ rationale for declaring independence and, importantly, the philosophical origin of the new country. Jefferson and the delegates borrowed heavily from Locke’s thinking and words.
EXAMPLE 1
In the Second Treatise2 Locke writes, “The constitution of the legislative is the first and fundamental act of society, whereby provision is made for the continuation of their union under the direction of persons and bonds of laws, made by persons authorized thereunto, but the consent and appointment of the people, without which no one man, or number of men, amongst them can have authority of making laws that shall be binding to the rest. When anyone, or more, shall take upon them to make laws, whom the people have not appointed so to do, they make laws without authority, which the people are not therefore bound to obey; by which means they come again to be out of subjection, and may constitute to themselves a new legislative, as they think best, being in full liberty to resist the force of those, who without authority would impose any thing upon them” (19, 212).
Locke’s asserting that laws made by men or governments without the consent of the governed are illegitimate and no man is bound to them. Under these circumstances, men are not only free to resist such a force, but they are free to form a new government.
Locke also writes, “[W]henever the legislators endeavour 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, and are left to the common refuge which God hath provided for all men against force and violence.… What