Jefferson and Locke

Jefferson and Locke

“Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," (Jefferson) is arguably the most famous quote from the Declaration of Independence but the more educated would know that Thomas Jefferson most likely plagiarized that from John Locke, who said, “All mankind... being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty or possessions.” It is without a doubt that John Locke’s philosophy during the Age of Enlightenment had influenced Thomas Jefferson when he was writing the Declaration of Independence. Although Jefferson wrote the Preamble as his own, one can see that he was paraphrasing Locke. To Jefferson’s credit, his writing of the Preamble of the Declaration of Independence was important because it built the bridge between a philosophical theory and actually applying it to politics of the time.

In Locke’s essay, Book II called Second Treatise he explains his philosophical approach to the state of nature and how men are bound to a social contract giving consent to the government to protect their unalienable rights.

In chapter 1, Locke gives examples how Adam from the bible was created by God but was not given the absolute power over the world. So Locke said even his children and future heirs did not have this authority. Even if Adam solely being the first man created by God was given absolute power over the world, no one could claim the rights to divine rule because it would be impossible to trace their lineage back to Adam. Although Locke does explain there are different types of powers-paternal, familial, and political- one must not confuse them for another because each has its different characteristics. He defines political power as the right to make laws for the protection...

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... different. While Locke stated people formed a government to avoid war and protect rights, it appeared Jefferson was giving excuses to go into war to protect their rights. Locke also went on to describe the natural law of nature whereas a man is given the right to his property and any man who imposed on another man’s property was inclined to receive punishment. Jefferson took this idea to another level in the Declaration of Independence by listing the abuses of the King and Parliament. Jefferson showed that because of the failure of the British Government to protect the colonists’ rights to life, liberty and property (pursuit of happiness) even in the state of nature where man has to obey natural law, it was inevitable that the colonist would have to declare war on the British for violating their unalienable rights and even more so as the British citizens.