Editing American Revolution (section)

====Liberalism====
{{main|Liberalism in the United States}}
{{see also|Social contract|Natural rights and legal rights}}
{{Liberalism sidebar}}
[[File:Samuel_Adams_by_John_Singleton_Copley.jpg|thumb|[[Samuel Adams]] points at the [[Explanatory charter|Massachusetts Charter]], which he viewed as a constitution that protected the people's rights, in this {{circa|1772}} portrait by [[John Singleton Copley]].<ref>Alexander, ''Revolutionary Politician'', 103, 136; Maier, ''Old Revolutionaries'', 41–42.</ref>]]
[[John Locke]] is often referred to as "the philosopher of the American Revolution" due to his work in the [[Social Contract]] and [[Natural Rights]] theories that underpinned the Revolution's political ideology.<ref>{{cite book|author=Jeffrey D. Schultz|title=Encyclopedia of Religion in American Politics|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dy1MNv8ou-0C&pg=PA148|year=1999|publisher=Greenwood|page=148|display-authors=etal|isbn=978-1573561303}}</ref> Locke's ''[[Two Treatises of Government]]'' published in 1689 was especially influential. He argued that all humans were created equally free, and governments therefore needed the "[[consent of the governed]]".<ref>{{Cite book|last=Waldron|first=Jenny|title=God, Locke, and Equality|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]|year=2002|pages=136|doi=10.1017/CBO9780511613920|isbn=978-0-521-81001-2 }}</ref> In late eighteenth-century America, belief was still widespread in "equality by creation" and "rights by creation".<ref>Thomas S. Kidd (2010): ''God of Liberty: A Religious History of the American Revolution'', New York, pp. 6–7</ref> Locke's ideas on liberty influenced the political thinking of English writers such as [[John Trenchard (writer)|John Trenchard]], [[Thomas Gordon (writer)|Thomas Gordon]], and [[Benjamin Hoadly]], whose political ideas in turn also had a strong influence on the American Patriots.<ref>Middlekauff (2005), pp. 136–138</ref> His work also inspired symbols used in the American Revolution such as the "Appeal to Heaven" found on the [[Pine Tree Flag]], which alludes to Locke's concept of the [[right of revolution]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Right of Revolution: John Locke, Second Treatise, §§ 149, 155, 168, 207–10, 220–31, 240–43|url=https://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/v1ch3s2.html|access-date=June 7, 2024|website=press-pubs.uchicago.edu}}</ref>

The theory of the social contract influenced the belief among many of the Founders that the [[Right of revolution|right of the people to overthrow their leaders]], should those leaders betray the historic [[rights of Englishmen]], was one of the "natural rights" of man.<ref name=Toth1989>Charles W. Toth, ''Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite: The American Revolution and the European Response''. (1989) p. 26.</ref><ref name=Cohen2008>Philosophical Tales, by Martin Cohen, (Blackwell 2008), p. 101</ref> The Americans heavily relied on [[Charles de Secondat, baron de Montesquieu|Montesquieu]]'s analysis of the wisdom of the "balanced" British Constitution ([[mixed government]]) in writing the state and national constitutions.