Locke and Jefferson V. DOC
Alex Haas and Austin Anthony
Comparisons
1. When creating the Declaration of Independence one of the most important things the colonies wanted to add was the freedoms of one another. Both Thomas Jefferson and John Locke believe in Democracy, and that the government should protect people, give them safety, and protect their rights.
"No one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty or possessions" -TCG
" “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression" -DOI
2. One comparison that Locke did not see eye to eye with was freedoms. Locke believes that people have right for property and Thomas Jefferson believes in the pursuit of happiness.
"Government has no other end but the preservation of property" -TCG
"Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness" -DOI
3. Though Locke and Jefferson did not agree on freedoms and the pursuit of happiness, they both said that all people are equal and that one person was not better than another. Which I see as going against but supporting some of Locke's philosophies.
"All men are created equal" -DOI
"All mankind...being all equal and independent" -TCG
4. Locke and Jefferson believed in the right to overthrow the government if it violated any part of what was considered constitutional.
“When the government is dissolved, the people are at liberty to provide for themselves, by erecting a new legislative, differing from the other, by the change of persons, or form, or both, as they shall find it most for their safety and good…” -TCG
“Whenever any Form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it, and to institute new Government…” -DOI
5. In the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson spoke about the transition from the Law of Nature to the law of civil society. In the Second Treatise of Government Locke goes into detail in describing humanity’s transition from the state of nature into civil society.
“when any number of men have so consented to make on community or government, they are thereby incorporated, and make on body politic, wherein the majority have a right to act and conclude the rest” -TCG
“That to secure these (unalienable) rights, Governments are instituted among men, deriving their powers from the consent of the governed…” -DOI