In January 1776, Thomas Paine, a political theorist
and writer who had come to America from England in 1774, published
a 50-page pamphlet, Common Sense. Within three months, 100,000
copies of the pamphlet were sold. Paine attacked the idea of hereditary
monarchy, declaring that one honest man was worth more to society
than "all the crowned ruffians that ever lived." He presented the
alternatives -- continued submission to a tyrannical king and an outworn
government, or liberty and happiness as a self-sufficient, independent
republic. Circulated throughout the colonies, Common Sense
helped to crystallize the desire for separation.
There still remained the task, however, of gaining
each colony's approval of a formal declaration. On May 10, 1776 --
one year to the day since the Second Continental Congress had first
met -- a resolution was adopted calling for separation. Now only a
formal declaration was needed. On June 7, Richard Henry Lee of Virginia
introduced a resolution declaring "That these United Colonies are,
and of right ought to be, free and independent states...." Immediately,
a committee of five, headed by Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, was appointed
to prepare a formal declaration.
Largely Jefferson's work, the Declaration of Independence,
adopted July 4, 1776, not only announced the birth of a new nation,
but also set forth a philosophy of human freedom that would become
a dynamic force throughout the entire world. The Declaration draws
upon French and English Enlightenment political philosophy, but one
influence in particular stands out: John Locke's Second Treatise
on Government. Locke took conceptions of the traditional rights
of Englishmen and universalized them into the natural rights of all
humankind. The Declaration's familiar opening passage echoes Locke's
social-contract theory of government:
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. That to secure these rights, Governments
are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent
of the governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive
of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish
it, and to institute a new Government, laying its foundation on such
principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall
seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
In the Declaration, Jefferson linked Locke's principles
directly to the situation in the colonies. To fight for American independence
was to fight for a government based on popular consent in place of
a government by a king who had "combined with others to subject us
to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged
by our laws...." Only a government based on popular consent could
secure natural rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Thus, to fight for American independence was to fight on behalf of
one's own natural rights.