Declaration of Independence - Give No Credit to Jefferson, They Were All Locke's Ideas

Normally, when people think of the Declaration of Independence and John Locke, they are reminded of the Declaration's phrase "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness" and how it connects to Locke's phrase "Life, Liberty, and Property." They attribute the two words to Locke's theory, and may make the mistake of assuming that those two words are the only thing that Locke contributed to the ideology of the Declaration. But Locke's contribution does not end there; his theory is the foundation of the Declaration's ideology. In fact, every phrase of the Preamble to the Declaration of Independence directly relates to John Locke's theory on civil government.

Jefferson claimed that the Declaration was a compilation of many ideas. He set out "not to find out new principles, or new arguments, never before thought of, not merely to say things which 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." (Jefferson 1892, 99). It was a collaborative effort. Even though much of the Declaration can be related to other sources more specifically and directly, they relate only to portions of the Declaration, not the whole. It is only Locke's theory that wholly encompasses the political philosophy behind the Declaration.

The Preamble consists of five sentences and fourteen phrases. Some of these phrases connect to Locke's theory by using the same wording, and others are a summation of his ideas. Everything connects to his theory very directly through the themes of laws of nature, common opinion, equality, rights to life liberty and property, security, and the evils of monarchy.

Sentence One: Dissolving Bonds with a Corrupt Government

"When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another,"