Enlightenment thinking and the Declaration of Independence.

The Declaration of Independence is the basis of our government here in the United States. When the authors of this document were writing it they included many references to enlightenment theories. Of these many theories three within the document can be attributed to John Locke, Jean Jacques Rousseau, and Thomas Hobbes. John Locke was a believer in the three natural rights of man, life, liberty, and property. In the Declaration of Independence Locke's idea can …

…to gain rights people had to give up rights. One right which people were supposed to gain was protection by the government. This idea can be found within the Declaration of Independence, "He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his protection and waging war against us." The Declaration of Independence contains many different enlightenment ideas. These ideas had a great impact on the founding of the United States and still do today.