“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.”
Thomas Jefferson thought of Francis Bacon, John Locke, and Isaac Newton as “the greatest three people who ever lived, without exception.” All three have portraits hanging in Monticello. The three had this in common; they believed that reason was the basis of mankind being made imago Dei, in the image of God.
When Richard Henry Lee, another Virginian who signed the Declaration of Independence, pointed out years later that Jefferson had borrowed wholesale from Locke’s 2nd Treatise on Government, Jefferson wrote back to say:
“This was the object of the Declaration of Independence, not to find out new principles, or new arguments never before thought of, not merely to say things that had never been said before; but to place before mankind the common sense of the subject, in terms so plain and firm as to command their assent, and to justify ourselves sin the independent stand we are compelled to take. Neither aiming at originality of principle or sentiment, nor yet copied from any particular and previous writing, it was intended to be an expression if the American mind.… All its authority rests then on 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.”
In other words, the sources of the language for the Declaration would have been obvious to all Americans versed in the subject.
Locke posited that mankind in a 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 but consult it, that being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions; for men being all the workmanship of one omnipotent, and infinitely wise maker; all the servants of one sovereign master, sent into this by his order…”
Locke emphasized the right to property, but wrote that “…every man has a property in his own person.” All of our natural rights are, therefore, our “property,” and that mankind formed communities:
“… for the mutual preservation of their lives, liberties and estates, which I call by the general name property. The great and chief end, therefore, of men’s uniting into commonwealths, and putting themselves under government, is the preservation of their property.”
God himself drove man to seek this community, since “we are naturally induced to seek communion and fellowship with others…” Locke cited Psalm 115:16:
“The heaven, even the heavens, are the Lord’s: but the earth hath he given to the children of men.”
God commanded that man subdue the earth, to “be fruitful and multiply.” To do this efficiently He, according to Locke, “…gave authority so far to appropriate; and the condition of human life, which requires labor and materials to work on, necessarily introduces private possessions.”
The introduction of money, which resulted in inequality of outcome but not of rights, provided efficiency in the command to be fruitful and multiply.
Locke did his best to defend against the accusation that his “state of nature” was simply a construct, and that there are few examples of men joining together in such a state to consent to government. He argued that it must have started that way at some point, though admitting that the historical record is scant. He gave the example of Abraham and Lot separating their flocks and going their separate ways as an early example of property division. He cited the America of his time (late 1600s) as offering an example of how vast resources don’t amount to much without economic efficiency, comparing their relative backwardness and lack of wealth to the England of his day.
Locke should have taken a closer look at America for support of his principles in general.
In December of 1620, the Mayflower arrived off Cape Cod, having been blown off their intended destination, the mouth of the Hudson River, which was considered the northern part of the Virginia patent. According to William Bradford, the “strangers” among them (those not of their faith) made “…discontented and mutinous speeches….That when they came ashore they would use their own liberty, for none had power to command them, the patent they had being for Virginia and not for New England…” In effect, they were arguing that they were literally in what Locke would call a “state of nature.”
To resolve the matter, the passengers were persuaded to join in signing the Mayflower Compact, wherein they promised to “covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil body politick…” establishing self-government in the colony that they would later jealously defend in April of 1775.
Bradford’s little colony learned the hard way about private property being the incentive to “be fruitful and multiply.” At first, they held everything in common, working the same fields all together, etc., which “…was found to breed much confusion and discontent, and retard much employment that would have been to their benefit and comfort.”
They then voted to allot fields, which vastly increased the overall supply of food. Bradford made clear the lesson learned: “The experience that was had in this common course and condition, tried sundry years, and that amongst godly and sober men, may well evince the vanity of that conceit of Plato and other ancients, applauded by some of later times; that the taking away of property and bringing in community into a commonwealth, would make them happy and flourishing; as if they were wiser than God… Let none object this is men’s corruption, and nothing to the course itself, I answer seeing all men have this corruption in them, God in his wisdom saw another course for them.”
To deny man’s nature as God made him is foolish and dangerous. History has shown that by following the principles Locke set forth, we have created abundance in all things that even recent ancestors could have only dreamed of.
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