Origin & Development of the
US Constitution
Module 1.1: The Natural Rights Argument
Lesson Objectives
• Review the political claims of Machiavelli,
Hobbes, and Locke
• Identify the principles of the Declaration of
Independence
• Describe at least one consequence of the
Natural Rights Argument
The Story So Far…
• Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527)
– Politics inevitably deals with
necessity
– No man rules but is ruled by need
– We are all equally self-interested
– Men cannot to be trusted to be
anything by selfish
– Statecraft requires anticipating
necessity
– One must manipulate appearances
to preserve one’s state
The Story So Far…
• Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679)
– Human beings alike in their nature
• Human nature best seen in the absence of
society
• self-interested
• State of Nature so bad, so dangerous that we
must leave it to form societies
– Societies depend on a social contract among
its members
– Terms of Hobbes’ social contract: exchange
rights for security
– Sovereigns established by societies to
enforce the social contract
– Sovereigns superior in power to subjects
– Sovereigns limited by the needs of the social
contract
– Sovereigns may be replaced when they fail
to enforce the social contract.
The Story So Far…
• John Locke (1632-1704)
– Human beings are alike in their nature
• Every man a sovereign in the State of
Nature
• State of Nature insecure
– Societies depend on a social contract
under Natural Law
– Terms of Locke’s Social Contract: share
executive power over the Law of Nature
to secure life liberty & property
– Civil Government established to enforce
Natural Law where individuals cannot
– Civil Sovereigns equal to subjects
– Civil Government limited by Law of
Nature and Social Contract
– Civil Government may be replaced if they
violate either of these
– New Civil governments require consent
for legitimacy
Thomas Jefferson
(1743-1826)
• Virginia statesman, political
thinker, scientist,
horticulturist and inventor
• Interpretation of human
nature central to the
American Founding
• Strongly influenced by
John Locke’s Second
Treatise of Government
• Author of the Declaration of
Independence
• Founder of the University
of Virginia
Jefferson and Human Nature
• Human nature a result of the “Laws
of Nature and of Nature’s God”
• All men are created equal
– They are endowed by their Creator with
inherent and inalienable rights
• Among these are life, liberty and the
pursuit of happiness
• Emphasizes law of nature and
inalienability of rights
• For Jefferson, rights are not
products of society, but are a part of
human nature
• (Similar to Locke’s State of Nature
argument, isn’t it?)
Question #1
• What is the source of rights according to
the Declaration of Independence?
a)
b)
c)
d)
Government
The Declaration of Independence
The Constitution
The Creator
Jefferson and Government
• For Jefferson, governments have only one
purpose:
– To secure natural rights
• In order to secure natural rights, a government
must respect those rights even at its inception
• Governments depend on the consent of the
governed for their legitimacy
• The standard of justice
– Does a government secure natural rights?
– Does a government recognize its dependence on the
consent of the governed?
Question #2
• According to the Declaration of
Independence, what is the purpose of
government?
a)
b)
c)
d)
To secure the interest of the people
To secure unalienable rights
To secure the public order
To secure human equality
Question #3
• How can one tell that a government is a
legitimate authority?
a) When its powers are derived from the
consent of the governed
b) When its powers are derived from necessity
c) When it effectively exercises its powers over
the governed
d) When it does not abuse the power granted
to it
A Fourth Natural Right
• The right of the people to
alter or abolish government
– Whenever any form of
government is destructive of
the security of natural rights
• Governments are
instruments of sovereignty,
but are not themselves
sovereigns
• The people are the
sovereign, not any
government
Limits to the Fourth Natural Right
• Prudence
– Governments long established should not be changed
for light and transient causes
• Experience
– Shows that mankind are more disposed to suffer
while evils are sufferable than to right themselves
• These limits do not mean that abuses by
governments are right or just—only that they are
tolerable…for now.
Question #5
• What limits the ability of the people to
exercise their right of revolution in the
Declaration of Independence?
a)
b)
c)
d)
Necessity
The public good
Prudence
Force
Question #6
• According to Thomas Jefferson, what lessons
are drawn from experience in the Declaration
of Independence?
a) people are more likely to suffer tolerable evils
than correct them outright
b) people are more likely to revolt when
government fails to secure unalienable rights
c) people are more likely to consent to abusive
governments if they themselves benefit
d) people are more likely to revolt if they are taxed
without having representation
The Fourth Natural Right as Duty
• When a long train of
abuses and usurpations
demonstrates a design to
exercise despotic power
• Remember despotic
power in Aristotle?
– The power of master over
slave
• So, when government
seeks to enslave the
governed, it is the duty of
the governed to
overthrow government
Question #7
• Do you think Jefferson believed that we
are all equal in our natural rights?
a) Yes
b) No
Question #8
• According to the Declaration of
Independence, when do the people have the
right to overthrow one government and
establish another?
a) whenever any form of government fails to
secure the interest of the people
b) whenever any form of government becomes
destructive of the security of unalienable rights
c) whenever any form of government fails to
protect citizens
d) whenever any form of government becomes
destructive of self-evident truths.
Wait a minute…
Descendants
of
Sally Hemings
• Wasn’t Jefferson a Virginia slave owner?
• How can Jefferson claim that natural rights are violated
when government tries to make slaves of the governed
when he himself governs slaves?
• Was Jefferson entailed?
Jefferson on Slavery
• Lists the institution of slavery
as a system of crimes
committed by the King of
Great Britain
•
He has waged cruel war against human
nature itself, violating its most sacred
rights of life and liberty in the persons of a
distant people who never offended him,
captivating and carrying them into slavery
– The king violates natural rights into another hemisphere, or to incur
miserable death in their transportation
by establishing slavery
hither. This piratical warfare, the
– The king violates natural rights Determined
opprobrium to
of keep
INFIDEL
is the
openpowers,
a market
where
warfare
of the
by opposing the abolition of
MEN
should
beCHRISTIAN
bought and king
sold,of
heGreat
has
And
that
this
assemblage
of
horrors
Britain.
prostituted his negative for suppressing
slavery
might want no fact of distinguished
every
legislative
attemptthose
to prohibit
– The king violates the natural
die, he
is now exciting
very or to
restrain
execrable
people this
to rise
in arms commerce.
among us, and
rights both of slaves and
to purchase that liberty of which he
slaveholders
has deprived them, by murdering the
people on whom he also obtruded
Elsewhere on slavery
them: thus paying off former crimes
– “I tremble for my country when I against the LIBERTIES of one
people, with crimes which he urges
think that God is just…God’s
them to commit against the LIVES of
Justice cannot sleep forever”
another.
Question #9
• Based on Jefferson’s original draft of the
Declaration of Independence, what is
slavery?
a)
b)
c)
d)
a positive good
a necessary evil
a crime of the king
an unalienable right
Major Themes of the Declaration of
Independence
Self evident truths
We hold these truths to be self-evident
Human equality
All men are created equal
They are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights
Natural rights
Among these rights:
Life
Liberty
Pursuit of happiness
Purpose of gov’t
To secure rights
Measure of Justice
Consent of the governed
Right of revolution
Limits to the
right of revolution
Whenever any form of gov’t is destructive of the security of natural
rights
Prudence:
Long-established gov’ts shouldn’t be overthrown for “light and transient causes”
Experience:
Men are more disposed to suffer while evils are sufferable than to right
themselves
Activity
• On a sheet of paper, describe one
implication of Jefferson’s claim in the
Declaration of Independence
• Place this sheet in a container
• Draw a sheet from the container as you
receive it.
• Explain the answer on the sheet.