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Show Notes
In this 2nd episode in our 2 part series, we conclude our discussion about the ideas that inspired the founding of our great nation. We talk about the “State of Nature”, the “Laws of Nature”, and “Civil Society” and it’s intended purpose of preserving liberty of the individual. Finally, we talk about how Locke’s 2nd Treatise of Government inspired the Principles of Liberty enshrined in the Declaration of Independence.
Additional references from the episode can be found below:
- Two Treatises of Government – John Locke (1689)
- “The God who gave us life gave us liberty at the same time” -Thomas Jefferson, 1774. From “Summary View of the Rights of British America
- Principles of Liberty (derived from the opening paragraph of the Declaration of Independence)
- Equality
- When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected 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.
- We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal,
- God-given (unalienable) rights
- that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–
- Purpose of Government
- That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men,
- Political Sovereignty of the Individual
- deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed
- Right of self-determination
- 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. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But 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. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
- Equality