LockeDeclaration of Independence
Natural Rights
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“The state of nature has a law to govern it”
“Laws of Nature and Nature’s God”
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“life, liberty, and property”
life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness
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Purpose of Government
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“to preserve himself, his liberty, and property”
to secure these rights
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Equality
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men being by nature all free, equal and independent
all men are created equal
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Consent of the Governed
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for when any number of men have, by the consent of every individual, made a community, with a power to act as one body, which is only by the will and determination of the majority
Governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.
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Limited Government
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Absolute arbitrary power, or governing without settled laws, can neither of them consist with the ends of society and government.
The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations.
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As usurpation is the exercise of power which another has a right to, so tyranny is the exercise of power beyond right, which nobody can have a right to.
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Right to Revolt
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The people shall be the judge.... Oppression raises ferments and makes men struggle to cast off an uneasy and tyrannical yoke.
Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes.... 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.
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