Introduction
“We 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” .
This line is often quoted to exemplify John Locke’s conception of Natural Law and its’ influence on Thomas Jefferson as he drafted the Declaration of Independence. However, Jefferson’s understanding of Natural Law is the culmination of a Natural Law revolution that was sparked almost 100 years earlier in the form of the Glorious Revolution in Britain. To fully understand Natural Law’s influence on the Declaration of Independence one must understand the circumstances surrounding John Locke as he wrote The Second Treatise of Government where he famously said; “The state of nature has a law of nature to govern it, which obliges every one: and reason, which is that law, teaches all mankind, who will consult it, that being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty or possessions” . The similarities between the two quotes is not a coincidence.
Our examination will begin with the Glorious Revolution and the 100 years following it that led up to the Declaration of Independence and American Revolution. Next, we will examine the Natural Law influences on Thomas Jefferson and the Declaration of Independence itself. Lastly, we will analyze the lasting impacts of the Declaration of Independence and Natural Law on the United States.
The Sparks of Revolution
The late 17th centaury in Britain was a time of unrest, King James II, who was catholic, took the throne in 1685 in spite of the ultra-Protestant Whig’s efforts to exclude him. After the new king took the throne, the Protestants greatest fears were realized; King James coerced the Court of the King’s Bench into repealing religious restrictions and made several other Pro Catholic moves. Freedom of religion sounds great in today’s more liberal society, but for the conservative culture of 17th centaury Britain, the thought was both shocking and infuriating. The straw that broke the camel’s back occurred when the king bore a son and cemented what would be a Catholic dynasty in Britain. In 1689, the Whigs could no longer stand by and watch their protestant influence in the government crumble. The Whigs relied on the writings of John Locke in his Two Treatises on Government and his conception of Natural Law to revolt and overthrow King James in favor of William.
Locke’s writings in the Two Treatises on Government focuses on social contract theory and the right of those being governed. When it comes to revolution Locke wrote;
“for no man, or society of men, having a power to deliver up their preservation, or consequently the means of it, to the absolute will and arbitrary dominion of another; whenever anyone shall go about to bring them into such a slavish condition, they will always have a right to preserve what they have not a power to part with; and to rid themselves of those who invade this fundamental, sacred and unalterable law of self-preservation, for which they entered into society and thus the community may be said in this respect to be always the supreme power” .
Passages like this make it obvious why Locke’s writing go hand and hand with revolution and inspired both the Glorious and American Revolution. Locke’s popular sovereignty conception of Natural Law was a stark change from previous Natural Law thinkers who emphasized the need for authoritarian leaders. Unfortunately for Locke and the colonies, after the Glorious Revolution was successful his radical approach was cast aside.
The new British government headed by King William quickly averted from Locke’s ideas that inspired the revolution in favor of Thomas Hobbes’ more conservative interpretation of Natural Law. As so often happens, the winner writes the history books, usually in a way most beneficial to the winner and the new British government did just that in their characterization of the revolution. According to the new monarchy, after the Glorious Revolution successfully removed King James II from power, his departure from the throne was characterized as an abdication instead of an arrest and exile. This distinction is important because it allowed the British to emphasize continuity and preserve the monarchy, which is much more sustainable under conservative Natural Law. The most prominent conservative Natural Law minds that King William relied for the preservation of the monarchy included Thomas Hobbes, Hugo Grotius, and Samuel Pufendorf. The conservative thinker’s interpretation of Natural Law emphasized a strong absolute version of political sovereignty and generally rejected the right to self-government and the right to revolution in favor of uncontrolled authority to those governing. The strict conservative Natural Law interpretation became particularly problematic in the colonial setting where the British grounded their authority to govern and tax the 13 colonies in the notion that Parliament is the absolute authority throughout the British empire. Thus the match was struck that would fuel the fire of the American Revolution.
American Natural Law development began somewhere between the ultra-conservative teachings of Hobbes and the more liberal teachings of John Locke. Leaders in the colonies attempted to balance the ideas of Lock concerning self-government with respect to taxation and the conservative principle of parliamentary sovereignty in the empire. However, the increases in taxation caused unrest and the authoritarian ideas of Hobbes lost their popularity.
One of the prominent slogans that sticks with children as they are taught the history of the American Revolution is “No taxation without representation”. The inception of this idea actually came from James Otis who championed John Locke’s ideas from Two Treatises of Government in his writing; Rights of the British Colonies Asserted and Proved. In an excerpt from Rights of Government in his Rights of the British Colonies Asserted and Proved, Otis writes;
“I say supreme absolute power is originally and ultimately in the people; and they never did in fact freely, nor can they rightfully make an absolute, unlimited renunciation of this divine right. It is ever in the nature of the thing given in trust, and on a condition, the performance of which no mortal can dispence with; namely, that the person or persons on whom the sovereignty is confer’d by the people, shall incessantly consult their good. Tyranny of all kinds is to be abhor’d, whether it be in the hands of one, or of the few or of the many.”
Otis took Locke’s Natural Law social contract theory, which states that the power to govern comes from those that are governed, and applied it to taxation. By using a slippery slope argument, Otis basically said that without representation there is no limit to the amount of British taxes that can be levied on the colonies. Otis went so far as to claim “taxation without representation is tyranny” Otis inspired the American Colonists to reject the Stamp Act of 1765 and the Townsend Duties of 1767 but Parliament considered the resistance illegal and used British military forces to enforce laws.
As British Influence tightened around the colonists like a noose the Natural Law theory became more and more liberal. Otis stopped short of advocating for independence stating that “Parliament is uncontrollable but by themselves, and we must obey. They can only repeal their own acts.” But James Wilson, Thomas Jefferson, and Thomas Paine went further. They doubled down on Otis argument and argued that the colonies had no relationship with Parliament, their only tie to Britain was the Crown. Under Locke’s social contract theory, since the colonists had not delegated authority to the British Parliament they had no authority to impose taxes or any other law for that matter. In Considerations on the Authority of Parliament, James Wilson argued that the colonies being bound by the legislative authority of the Parliament of Great Britain was “repugnant to the essential maxims of jurisprudence” . In Thomas Jefferson’s Summary View of the Rights of British America, Jefferson subscribed to Locke’s more radical conception of Natural Law. Jefferson Famously stated that after the Glorious Revolution the British Monarch is no longer absolute and the King is merely a “chief officer of the People, appointed by the Laws and Circumscribed with definitive powers” that are not limitless. Jefferson also stated that all British colonies, including those of America, are united solely by the fact that they have the British Monarch as Chief Executive and that the Chief Executive has no power over the colonies because Parliament’s legislative power is exclusively domestic. Finally Jefferson argued: “From the nature of things, every society must at all times possess within itself the sovereign powers of legislation” . Lastly, Thomas Paine went the furthest of all in his famous pamphlet Common Sense. Paine argued that the concept of a Monarch in and of itself is against the principles of Natural Law and the idea of kings and subjects was particularly troubling to him. Specifically Paine states that “no natural or religious reason can be assigned, and that is, the distinction of man into Kings and Subjects.” Thomas Paine’s call for independence was the culmination of the American Natural Law development and it would not be the last. Later that year the Thomas Jefferson would formalize Locke’s influence on the colonist in the Declaration of Independence.
The Text and the Man Behind It.
54 years after Two Treatises on Government was published and 39 years after the death of John Locke, a baby boy named Thomas Jefferson was born in Shadwell, Virginia on April 13, 1743. This same baby boy would go on to be the Author of the Declaration of Independence and the champion of John Locke’s ideas on natural rights and the right of revolution.
Thomas Jefferson began his philosophical and political career at William and Mary College in 1760, where he befriended Professor William Small, Lawyer George Wythe, and Lieutenant Governor Francis Fuaquier. The three often dined with Jefferson and where big influences on his legal and political career; Wythe taught Jefferson law for two years and the trio encouraged Jefferson to eventually gain admittance into the house of Burgesses in 1769. Jefferson stopped practicing law in 1774 and wrote his very famous, previously mentioned, Summary of the Rights of British America. It was clear after the publication that Jefferson’s real calling was writing and the place where he really belonged was the Continental Congress. Jefferson was elected to the Continental Congress in 1775 as the second youngest member in its history at the ripe age of 32. Upon his election, it was decided that he would join a committee composed of John Adams, Roger Sherman, Benjamin Franklin and Robert Livingston who would be responsible for drafting a document declaring the 13 colonies independence from Britain. It was also decided that Jefferson would be responsible for composing the first draft of said document. Little did Jefferson know he would go on to personally draft what would become one of the most famous documents of all time, the Declaration of Independence. After several weeks of very hard work, Jefferson produced a document that focused on life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness as well as a government by the people and for the people. After editing and revisions by members of the committee, the document was approved on July 4, 1776.
The Declaration of Independence is broken down into four separate sections; The Preamble, A Declaration of Rights, A Bill of Indictment, and A Statement of Independence. Over the next several paragraphs, each section will be broken down and the Natural Law elements advanced by Locke will be identified.
The Preamble is rather brief and it explains why the colonists wrote the Declaration of Independence. It justifies the 13 colonies separating from Britain to the rest of the world specifically stating;
“When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected 5 them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.”
From the very beginning Jefferson makes no effort to hide the Natural Law influences, he cites “Laws of Nature” and rights that “Nature’s God entitle them” as the primary source of authority to justify the separation.
The Declaration of Rights portion of the document is the meat and bones of Jefferson’s efforts from a philosophical standpoint. This portion also draws directly from the teachings of John Locke when Jefferson writes;
“We 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 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 principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”
Although a portion of this quote was referenced earlier, it is important enough that it is once again addressed. The “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” portion draws directly from Locke’s Two Treatises on Government with a slight deviation, replacing property with pursuit of happiness. By “property” Locke was referencing something more substantial, something bigger than the buying or selling of goods, he was also referring to the right of an individual to see to their own well-being. Jefferson further expanded that right by substituting pursuit of happiness, his interpretation also encompassed the right to self-determination through labor, through art, through industry and through self-governance. The Declaration of Rights portion of the document is where Jefferson really adopts the natural rights Locke previously defined and where he tips his hand as a disciple of Locke. Jefferson recognizing natural rights is significant but even the far more conservative Natural Law thinkers such as Hobbes would be in an agreement with this idea. However, Jefferson goes on to endorse Locke’s more radical ideas outlined in Two Treatises on Government such as a government for the people, by the people or popular sovereignty. Jefferson follows Paine’s lead and goes further than simply questioning the Crown and Parliament’s authority to govern as he did in Summary View of the Rights of British America, He questions their fitness and argues that when a government has failed its’ people revolution is good and necessary. These democratic ideas had been hushed after the Glorious Revolution nearly a century earlier but Jefferson once again brought them to the forefront in order to start America’s very own revolution. He ends The Declaration of Rights portion of the document by claiming that the oppressed colonists do not just have a right to revolt they have a duty to do so;
“when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States.”
The Bill of Indictment share of the declaration goes on to list just how badly the colonists had been wronged by King George III and the British Government as a whole. The list includes specific actions such as taxes, the suspension of legislatures, the quartering of troops, the obstruction of justice, the refusal to assent to laws, and several general grievances like the belligerent behavior of the crown. Jefferson ended the list with a denunciation;
“In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people. Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.”
This type of structure is of English Constitutional Tradition and similar formatting can be observed in The Magna Carta and the 1689 Bill of Rights. However it was important to Jefferson that the Declaration maintained an arm’s length relationship with the previous English governing documents. To maintain the Declaration’s distance, The Denunciation once again calls upon Locke’s teachings which require that tyrannical behavior be met with revolution. Jefferson cited several specific instances to assure The Crown and the world that their accusations against the British Government were well grounded.
To conclude the document the Statement of Independence ties it all together and once again calls upon Natural Law principles;
“We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”
The reference to the Supreme Judge of the world and Authority of the good people are both obviously Natural Law principles. The latter is the principle earlier addressed regarding a government for the people and by the people. The former brings to light another important influence on the Declaration of Independence and Natural Law in general; A higher power that delegates the authority and natural rights the Jefferson and Locke repeatedly reference. This idea of a Supreme Authority or higher being was not unique to Locke and was a common sentiment amongst the American Colonists. Jefferson intended for the Declaration of Independence to be revolutionary but he also meant for it to capture the sentiment of the day, this intention is revealed in a letter to Henry Lee just before his death where he described the document as “the harmonizing sentiments of the day, whether expressed in conversation, in letters, printed essays, or in the elementary books of public right, as Aristotle, Cicero, Locke, Sidney, etc.”
Impact
The Declaration of Independence is one of the most influential documents of all time whose impact was felt both immediately and throughout history all over the world. The document would go on to inspire several other very influential documents both domestic and abroad and would grant unprecedented freedoms to several groups who had never known such freedoms all with Natural Law in mind.
The first and most obvious impact was the dissolution of the “political bands” between the United States and Great Britain. The American Revolution had begun a year earlier in 1775 with the battle of Lexington and Concord but the Declaration of Independence affirmed its legitimacy as a full blown revolution to the world and a formal declaration of war. Affirming the independence of the United States in a formal document was important for foreign relations because it put other nations on notice that the US was an equal state that was open for trade and treaties. The founders intent to notify the world becomes apparent with the wide spread circulation of the document throughout Europe. News of America’s independence was printed in The London Gazette on August 10, 1776 which is often characterized as the official organ of the crown to the people. France received an official copy in November of 1776 but news had already spread throughout most of Europe. The French receiving a copy is significant because they were a highly sought after ally for the Americans. The American’s desire to align with the French came to fruition in The Treaty of Alliance which was signed between the Americans and French on March 13, 1778. Amongst other things the treaty officially recognized the US as an independent nation separate from Britain. The treaty also brought the French into the American Revolution. Thanks to the aid of the French forces and supplies following the treaty, the Americans were able to end fighting in North America and succeed in their independence efforts. The Treaty of Alliance would not be the last time the Declaration of Independence was significant to the French, the French would go on to pen the French Declaration of the Rights Man and Citizen which would echo many of the Natural Law and natural right ideas advanced by Thomas Jefferson and John Locke.
Perhaps one of the most significant and transcendent impacts of the Declaration of Independence is the advancement of natural rights to all walks of life and all types of people. Many see the Declaration of Independence and its sentiments as a summary of the Bill of Rights. Where the Declaration offered general ideas of what rights should be inalienable, the Bill of Rights offered very specific rights ranging from freedom of speech, freedom of religion, the right to bear arms, freedom of assembly, the right to petition, prohibitions on unlawful search and seizures, prohibitions on self-incrimination, and prohibitions on self-incrimination. The specificity of the Bill of Rights gave force to the ideas expressed in the Declaration but the generality of the Declaration also went on to inspire some of the most influential historical documents, constitutional amendments, and leaders for years to come.
The “All Men are Created Equal” portion of the Preamble in the Declaration has been influential for equal treatment of some of the historically most marginalized groups of people, women and slaves. In 1848 women activists at the first ever woman organized woman’s right convention utilized the “All Men are Created Equal” language as they drafted the Declaration of Sentiments. The principle author of the document was Elizabeth Cady Stanton and she herself admitted that the document was modeled after the Declaration of Independence. The most revolutionary aspect of the Declaration of Sentiments was that it endorsed woman’s suffrage. In the North Star, Fredrick Douglas described the event as the “grand movement for attaining the civil, social, political, and religious rights of women”. 150 years later the events that transpired in Seneca, New York are still making an impact, Hillary Clinton referenced the convention and Declaration of Sentiments in a 2016 campaign speech when she said;
“Tonight’s victory is not about one person. It belongs to generations of women and men who struggled and sacrificed and made this moment possible. In our country, it started right here in New York, a place called Seneca Falls, in 1848. When a small but determined group of women, and men, came together with the idea that women deserved equal rights, and they set it forth in something called the Declaration of Sentiments, and it was the first time in human history that that kind of declaration occurred”.
Credit Mrs. Clinton for stressing just how revolutionary and impactful it was for the Elizabeth Cady Stanton to apply Locke’s Natural Law principles from the Declaration of Independence in the Declaration of Sentiments.
Another famous politician heavily influenced by the Declaration of Independence, especially the Natural Law portions, was Abraham Lincoln. The most obvious example of the Declaration’s influence is the echoing of the “All Men are Created Equal” in the Gettysburg Address. Lincoln opened the speech by stating “Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, upon this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal”. The Gettysburg Address was just the beginning, the reconstruction amendments to the constitution were heavily influenced by Lincoln’s actions throughout his presidency and reflect the Natural Law teachings of Locke and Jefferson that Lincoln brought to light through his leadership and actions. The 13th Amendment was the first of the reconstruction amendments and it abolished slavery as well as involuntary servitude. Had it not been for the Lincoln administration no such amendment would have been passed, it failed once and narrowly passed thanks to extensive lobbying by the president. What better example of “All Men are Created Equal” than amending the constitution to abolish the institution of slavery. If the abolition of slavery was the most significant accomplishment of the Lincoln administration the 14th Amendment and Due Process Clause were not far behind, especially today. In a time were Supreme Court Justices are often handcuffed and don’t have a clear direction to interpret a case they rely on the Due Process clause to tap into the Natural Law principles that are outline but not explicitly written in the constitution. Some examples of Due Process cases were the court as assured that “All Men are Created Equal” include the abolition of separate but equal, the right for indignant individuals to counsel, the abolition of state anti-miscegenation statutes and many others. Give credit to the founding fathers for the system they constructed; It has empowered individuals throughout history to look upon the Declaration of Independence and the Lockean ideas that Jefferson penned for guidance when it comes to deciding the future of this great nation and actually allows the Natural Law elements to be written into law through Constitutional Amendments.
Conclusion
It would not be outlandish to assume that John Locke had no idea that his philosophical ideas would have such a far reaching impact on the British American colonies. After all, at the time Locke penned the Two Treatises on Government, he was focused on the Glorious Revolution and the political state of Britain. However, one could just as easily argue that Locke knew exactly what he was doing when he wrote about popular sovereignty, natural rights, and the right to revolution, he was paving the way for democratic thinkers to come. Locke would not have been able to specifically identify the likes of James Otis, James Wilson, Thomas Paine and Thomas Jefferson but it is certain that he had men like this in mind when he wrote of holding the governing responsible for tyrannical behavior, of all men being equal, and when he wrote of a government for the people and by the people. Locke most of all would be pleased that this quote did not fall on deaf ears;
“As usurpation is the exercise of power, which another hath a right to; so tyranny is the exercise of power beyond right, which no body can have a right to. And this is making use of the power any one has in his hands, not for the good of those who are under it, but for his own private separate advantage. When the governor, however intitled, makes not the law, but his will, the rule; and his commands and actions are not directed to the preservation of the properties of his people, but the satisfaction of his own ambition, revenge, covetousness, or any other irregular passion.”
One would be a fool to argue that there were no other influences aside from Locke on Jefferson as he penned the Declaration of Independence. That being said, it would also be foolish to try to trivialize Locke’s influence. Jefferson himself is quick to admit that Locke was very influential, In a letter to Richard Price Paris he wrote “Bacon, Locke and Newton, whose pictures I will trouble you to have copied for me: and as I consider them as the three greatest men that have ever lived, without any exception, and as having laid the foundation of those superstructures which have been raised in the Physical & Moral sciences”. One would also be a fool to believe that John Locke would look upon the Declaration of Independence and US Constitution without giving it his stamp of approval. There is also little doubt that had Locke been a colonists at the time of the American Revolution he would not have stood for the behavior of The Crown and British Parliament, He like the Jefferson would have sought independence.