Locke's Influence on the American Ideas of Natural Rights

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Locke's Influence on the American Ideas of Natural Rights (3)

John Locke. Two Treatises of Government.… The Latter is an Essay Concerning the True, Original Extent, and the End of Civil Government. London: Awnsham Churchill, 1690. Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (3)
[Digital ID# us0003 — us0003_5]

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Locke's Influence on the American Ideas of Natural Rights

The works of John Locke (1632—1704), well-known English political philosopher, provided many Americans with the philosophical arguments for inalienable natural rights, principally those of property and of rebellion against abusive governments. In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson did not incorporate Locke’s emphasis in his “Second Treatise of Government” on the right to property but gave the right to rebel a prominent place.