Many of the founding fathers and much of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States is influenced, sometimes directly by the writings of English political philosopher John Locke.

Locke argued that it was natural law – that is, a part of the unchanging universal moral principles that are the basis for all human conduct – that when a government no longer protected the people from preventable harm, that the people had a right (some later philosophers – including Thomas Jefferson said duty) to overthrow that government.

The history of the right to rebellion is traced to the very foundations of the history of civilization itself.[1] The first formal references are found in writings in Ancient China.[2] The concept is further reflected in the writings of Thomas Aquinas, Thomas Hobbes, Samuel Rutherford, Algernon Sidney, The Rights of Colonists, by Samuel Adams (1772), The Declaration of Independence (1776), The Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen (1789), The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) – to name a few.[3]

The Declaration of Independence argues that when a government becomes destructive, or even merely apathetic to its duty to preserve the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, that it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it. That this should be done in spite of the fact that people are willing to suffer a great deal to maintain their established norms. It further argues that this is not only a right but that after patient sufferance, the people have a duty to throw off the chains of tyranny.

Let me emphasize this; the founding fathers argued that people have not just a right, but a duty to throw off a government that has abdicated its moral and legal obligation to protect the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. This duty exists whether it be the King of England or some well-purchased politician in Washington, D.C. All fifty-six delegates of the Continental Congress have given you, not permission, but orders to do so.

Bibliography:

Adams, Samuel, The Rights of Colonists. 20 November 1772. Teachingamericanhistory.org, URL: Adams, Samuel, The Rights of Colonists. Accessed: 22 February 2018

Razmetaeva, Yulia, The Right to Resist and the Right of Rebellion. Yaroslav Mudryi National Law University. 19 September 2014.

The Declaration of the Rights of Man – 1789. The Avalon Project; Documents in Law, History, and Diplomacy. Yale Law School. URL: http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/rightsof.asp. Accessed: 18 February 2018.

The Declaration of Independence The Avalon Project; Documents in Law, History, and Diplomacy. Yale Law School. URL: http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/declare.asp. Accessed: 18 February 2018.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights Universal Declaration of Human Rights-Written at the U.N. in 1948. The Avalon Project; Documents in Law, History, and Diplomacy. Yale Law School. URL: http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/unrights.asp. Accessed: 18 February 2018.

Footnotes:

[1] The right of rebellion is also closely associated with the right to resist and the right to self-defense – these terms are interchangeable, different only in their granularity.

[2] Razmetaeva, Yulia, The Right to Resist and the Right of Rebellion. Yaroslav Mudryi National Law University. 19 September 2014. 2.

[3] Ibid., The Declaration of Independence. The Avalon Project; Documents in Law, History, and Diplomacy. Yale Law School. URL: http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/declare.asp. Accessed: 18 February 2018.