Common Sense By Thomas Paine And The Virginia Declaration Of Independence

America is a country whose ideals are based on freedom and democracy. However these ideas are not original, in fact many of the common ideas found in the Constitution and Declaration of Independence resemble the writings of people in the past. Even early documents pivotal to American independence such as Common Sense by Thomas Paine and the Virginia Declaration of Independence can be traced down to these early documents. The age of enlightenment brought several philosophers with new ideas, such as John Locke, Baron de Montesquieu, and Jean Jacques Rousseau. The works of these men helped to inspire a new way of thinking, towards freedom and democracy, the founding fathers embraced these ideas. John Locke wrote Second Treatise of Civil Government,

The power of the government Paine believes should stem from the people. Rousseau, as well, believed strongly that power came from the people. “The government’s power is only the public power vested in it.” The Declaration of Independence holds words similar sounding “governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.” The consent of the governed these are words that always held importance. Like systems seen before under British rule in America and event eh systems of monarchy observed in Britain and France, power was concentrated. A small portion of the government held power which dictated the lives of everyone, without the voice of everyone, hence “taxation without representation.” Locke states “they must not raise the taxes in the property of the people without the consent of the people given.” The Virginia Declaration replicates this statement “cannot be taxed or deprived of their property for public uses without their consent.” The Declaration of independence models after, making one of its complaints on the British “for imposing taxes on us without our consent.” Having a voice in the government gave people the power, just like the power that they gave the government. It allowed for their natural rights to be protected and

Rousseau presents this question “How is a method of associating to be found which will defend and protect-using the power of all-the person and property of each ember and still enable each member of the group to obey only him and to remain as free as before?” Thomas Paine says that “Government, on the other hand, is an institution whose sole purpose is to protect us from our own vices.” In order to grow and protect itself people join a society. For a society to have order and justice and remain equal, laws must be put in place, such that protect the individual rights of these people that they were born with. Equality is another belief that all these philosophies shared. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal,” these famous words written in the Declaration of Independent are not original to the founding fathers. Rousseau states “Man was born free,” this idea of freedom can be seen repeated several times in the works of the age of enlightenment. “Man, Paine argues, was born into a state of equality,” which clearly monarchy contradicts by elevating one man over the other. Locke adds “For in that state of perfect equality, where naturally there is no superiority or jurisdiction one over another.” The monarchy placed an unequal playing field for man. The only way to establish this is to not allow one man has power over