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Jefferson

Virtually everyone has heard of Thomas Jefferson, perhaps as a writer, philosopher, inventor, politician, president, although his most important characteristic was a being powerful advocate of liberty. Being elected for the Second Continental Congress, he became the primary author of the Declaration of Independence, along with Benjamin Franklin and few others. These incandescent creators of the Declaration, with the help and insight of other philosophical writings, gained America its freedom.
John Locke was one of the philosophers that influenced Jefferson. Locke starts out by suggesting “Being the preservation of all of his society, that is, all mankind in general, it can have no other end or measure, when in the hands of the magistrate, but to preserve the members of that society in their lives, liberties, and possessions, and so cannot be an absolute arbitrary power over their lives and fortunes etc.” Jefferson elicits from these words and concludes that the tyrannical power such as King George III should not be allowed to have powers on peoples’ belongings, whether fortune or liberty. Consequently he contributes to the Declaration: “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.”
Locke continues by saying “and so cannot be an absolute arbitrary power over their lives and fortunes, which are as much as possible to be preserved, but a power to make law, and annex such penalties to them, as may tend of the preservation of the whole by cutting off those parts, and those only, which are so corrupt that they threaten the sound and healthy, with which no severity is lawful.” Basically while Thomas reads this, it paints a picture in his mind. The image being that the King should be cut off as he is treacherous and affects the preservation of the American society. Jefferson affirms in the Declaration with...