Peter Craine
AP Government Summer Assignment It’s no secret that the United States of America is the freest, most lawful, and most democratic nation in this world’s history. This is reflected absolutely in the documents that set the law of the land, written by our founding fathers. The Declaration of Independence and the Virginia Declaration of Rights represent the idea 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”, while our Constitution encourages a “separation of powers” that keeps the governing bodies from assuming total control over the governed. Some of these ideas are also highlighted in Thomas Paine’s Common Sense, which was written as a means to convince the citizens of the colonies to secede from the oppressive Great Britain. While we take great pride in the fact that the likes of Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and George Mason employed these ideas in the forging of the United States, these ideas were not their own. In fact, they were utilized by men that existed long before the founding fathers were born. Men like John Locke, Charles de Montesquieu, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau held these beliefs and articulated them in many of their works, which the founders would use centuries later as references in the drafting of our founding documents. So, it’s only fair that we take an in-depth look at how these three men influenced the founders of our great country. When John Locke wrote the Second Treatise of Civil Government, a movement called the Exclusion Crisis introduced the Exclusion Bill, a document that aimed to prevent James II of England from ascending to the throne through hereditary means. It is believed that Locke wrote his treatise to support the bill, so it can be said that Locke’s belief in leaders “by the consent and appointment of the people”, or else “the people are not therefore bound to obey”, were partly inspired by this event. Locke stated that “When any one, or more ...make laws without authority”, it is the right of the citizens to denounce these tyrannical men and “constitute to themselves a new legislative”. The Declaration of Independence, which announced the separation of the American colonies from Great Britain, was drafted under very similar circumstances, stating that the reasons for the separation were the offenses by the King of England, whose history, according to the document, was “a history of repeated injuries and usurpations”, the end-goal being “an absolute tyranny over these States.” These reasons are also documented in Common Sense, as well as Paine’s belief that hereditary succession in a government “claimed as a matter of right, is an insult and an imposition on posterity.” The Virginia Declaration of Rights seconds Locke and Paine, stating in Section 4 that “neither ought the offices of magistrate, legislator, or judge to be hereditary”, while in Section 3, it states that the people “hath an indubitable, inalienable, and indefeasible right to reform, alter, or abolish (the government)” when that government falters from its duties toward “the common benefit, protection, and security of the people nation, or community”. Locke’s influence was instrumental to the independence of the colonies and the founding of the United States, as it is obvious from these documents that many of our founding fathers took some of their cues from him concerning the abolishment of a corrupt government and the rights of man. Though Locke is a well-known guidance for the origins of our country, Charles-Louis de Secondat, baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu (or Montesquieu for short) was the philosopher our founders quoted most in the drafting of our Constitution. He was the inspiration for the “separation of powers” in our current government, stating in The Spirit of the Laws, “There would be an end of every thing were the same man, or the same body, ... to exercise those three powers that of enacting laws, that of executing the public resolutions, and that of judging the crimes or differences of individuals.” He writes that all three branches; executive, legislative, and judiciary; should be separate, specifically the executive and legislative. Montesquieu’s opinion is reflected in the Virginia Declaration of Rights, which states in Section 5, “That the legislative and executive powers of the state should be separate and distinct from the judiciary”. Montesquieu also created what is known in America as “checks and balances”, where each branch of government is able to monitor and, in some cases, restrain the other two. For instance, in Montesquieu’s proposed government, the executive power “[has] a right of putting a stop to the encroachments of the legislative body”, while the legislative power has only “the means of examining in what manner its laws have been executed”. Also, the armies of the nation “ought not to depend immediately on the legislative, but on the executive power”. Montesquieu explains that “as soon as the army depends on the legislative body, the government becomes a military one.” These ideas are enacted in the U.S. Constitution, which names the executive power, the president, as the “commander in chief” of the U.S. military. So, it seems apparent that Montesquieu’s wisdom was fundamental in the creation of our existing government, as his words can be seen dripping off the pages of our founding documents. Last, but not least, is Rousseau and his acclaimed work, The Social Contract. In The Social Contract, Rousseau rhetorically asks, “How is a method of associating to be found which will defend and protect...and still enable each member of the group to obey only himself and to remain as free as before?” Rousseau believes that every citizen has two wills: his individual will as a man, and a general will as a citizen of the nation. If the citizen decides not to perform the duties required by the general will and only wants the benefits of being a citizen, “This unjust attitude could cause the ruin of the body politic if it became widespread enough.” Therefore, the social contract “tacitly includes this commitment”, that “by dedicating each citizen to the fatherland gives him a guarantee against being personally dependent on other individuals”. In a similar statement, The Virginia Declaration of Rights, in Section 15, declares that a free society can only be sustained “by a firm adherence to justice, moderation, temperance, frugality, and virtue and by frequent recurrence to fundamental principles.” A related item included in The Social Contract is the idea of civil religion; Rousseau states that, whatever the individual’s religion, it must require of him a commitment to his social obligations, “however, the dogmas of that religion are of no interest to the State except as they relate to morality and to the duties which each believer is required to perform for others.” The Virginia Declaration of Rights echoes Rousseau in this manner, stating in Section 16, “all men are equally entitled to the free exercise of religion, according to the dictates of conscience; and that it is the mutual duty of all to practice Christian forbearance, love, and charity toward each other.” Overall, Rousseau contributed significantly to the importance of morality and virtue in a society, something that our founders recognized to be significant as well. While Locke, Montesquieu, and Rousseau all contributed different concepts in the creation of our society, one ideology that bleeds out most in our founders’ words is the belief that all men have natural and equal rights, and that the means of government is to protect those rights so that no citizen need be afraid of being oppressed. The founders understood that these three men, among others, were not crafting philosophical theories to satisfy a bloated ego; they were simply repeating what history has already established, that tyrants and monarchies have never provided suffiecient freedom, if any at all, whereas democracies and limited governments controlled by the people do. This way of thinking resulted in what is known as the United States of America and it’s a way of thinking should be celebrated more in the world today.