11 The Pre-Revolutionary Period and the Roots of the American Political Traditio (6/18) -- Basics of American Politics

11 The Pre-Revolutionary Period and the Roots of the American Political Tradition Learning Objectives By the end of this section, you will be able to: - Identify the origins of the core values in American political thought, including ideas regarding representational government - Summarize Great Britain’s actions leading to the American Revolution American political ideas regarding liberty and self-government did not suddenly emerge full-blown at the moment the colonists declared their independence from Britain. The varied strands of what became the American republic had many roots, reaching far back in time and across the Atlantic Ocean to Europe. Indeed, it was not new ideas but old ones that led the colonists to revolt and form a new nation. Political Thought in the American Colonies The beliefs and attitudes that led to the call for independence had long been an important part of colonial life. Of all the political thinkers who influenced American beliefs about government, the most important is surely John Locke. The most significant contributions of Locke, a seventeenth-century English philosopher, were his ideas regarding the relationship between government and natural rights> In his Second Treatise on Government, Locke expanded on the notion of natural rights, originally developed by Sir Isaac Newton, and identified these rights as life, liberty, and property. Another of Locke’s predecessors worth discussing is Thomas Hobbes. In his 1651 treatise, Leviathan, Hobbes argued that mankind required a governing entity to protect its weaker members from the abuse of the strong. This agreement was a tacit one called a social contract. For Hobbes, this entity was best represented by an absolute monarch. Locke would remove the absolute monarch stipulation and allow for “more radical notions about the rights of individuals and the role of government.” [1] He theorized that human beings, not God, had created government. People sacrificed a small portion of their freedom and consented to be ruled in exchange for the government’s protection of their lives, liberty, and property. Should government deprive people of their rights by abusing the power given to it, the contract was broken and the people were no longer bound by its terms. The people could thus withdraw their consent to obey and form another government for their protection. The belief that government should not deprive people of their liberties and should be restricted in its power over citizens’ lives was an important factor in the controversial decision by the American colonies to declare independence from England in 1776. For Locke, withdrawing consent to be ruled by an established government and forming a new one meant replacing one monarch with another. For those colonists intent on rebelling, however, it meant establishing a new nation and creating a new government, one that would be greatly limited in the power it could exercise over the people. The desire to limit the power of governmen