Ameritopia_ The Unmaking of America - Mark R. Levin [48]
Even with the deletion of the antislavery charge, Jefferson and many of those signing the Declaration were setting in motion a course of events that would eventually challenge the legitimacy of slavery. After all, it was not possible to establish a nation based on inalienable rights—acknowledging every man’s sovereignty and equal right to the fruits of his own labor as a law of nature and thus God’s law—yet thereafter sanction slavery. And each of the original colonies gave allegiance to the Declaration, without exception. The idea and principle of the inseparability of liberty and property were at the core of America’s origin.
Locke’s impact on another important founder, George Mason, is evident in Mason’s original draft of the Virginia Declaration of Rights, which was written between May 20 and 26, 1776, and preceded by several weeks the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. Mason would later become a delegate from Virginia to the Constitutional Convention and ultimately refused to sign the Constitution, for he insisted on the inclusion of a bill of rights. (Of course, a bill of rights was later adopted.) Mason was a slaveholder, but he argued, among other things, that the Constitution did not do enough to prohibit the slave trade and the spread of slavery.
The similarities between Mason’s draft of the Virginia Declaration of Rights and the subsequent Declaration of Independence are obvious. And, again, Locke’s influence is visible throughout the document. Mason wrote, “That all Men are born equally free and independent, and have certain inherent natural Rights, of which they can not by any Compact, deprive or divest their Posterity; among which are the Enjoyment of Life and Liberty, with the Means of acquiring and possessing Property, and pursuing and obtaining Happiness and Safety. That Power is, by God and Nature, vested in, and consequently derived from the People.…” Mason shares Locke’s view of God-given, immutable natural rights, which all men are vested with at birth, and which government has neither the power to grant nor deny.
The draft included, “That Government is, or ought to be, instituted for the common Benefit, Protection, and Security of the People, Nation, or Community; of all the various Modes and Forms of Government, that is best, which is capable of producing the greatest Degree of Happiness and Safety, and is most effectually secured against the Danger of mal-administration. And that whenever any Government shall be found inadequate, or contrary to these Purposes, a Majority of the Community had an indubitable, inalienable, and indefeasible Right to reform, alter or abolish it, in such Manner as shall be judged most conducive to the Public Weal.” Consistent with Locke’s view, if the government ceases to nurture, preserve, and protect man’s inalienable rights, the people are free if not obligated to alter it.
Furthermore, Mason wrote that government cannot simply seize someone’s property. Nor are the people required to comply with laws imposed by a government established without their consent. “That no part of a Man’s Property can be taken from him, or applied to public uses, without the Consent of himself, or his legal Representatives; nor are the People bound by any Laws, but such as they have in like Manner assented to for their common Good.” Again, this is a Lockean formulation.
Mason also insisted on impartial justice. “That in all controversies respecting Property, and in Suits between Man and Man, the ancient Trial by Jury is preferable to any other, and ought to be held sacred.” This is a main justification Locke