Ideological Sources of Resistance

Ideological Sources of Resistance

Abby Dominy

As the colonists began to form their ideas for a new government in America, they drew their primary guidance from English Common Law, the Age of Enlightenment, and English political customs. Allowing for disagreement as to their proper order, I have sequenced them in the order I believe to be most inspirational to the colonists.

After hundreds of years, English Common law evolved to protect the citizens from being abused by the Crown. The colonists agreed the Common Law wasn’t very effective in preventing such abuses, so they chose the concepts they believed to be best suited to eliminate the threat that the previous abuses proposed. Today, much of our laws contain ideas from century old English Common law.

In the 18th century, many philosophers emerged and began to inspire others. A large amount of these enlightenment philosophers followed the ideas of 17th century John Locke. Locke, Father of Classical Liberalism, theorized that a fundamental purpose of government was to protect the peoples’ right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. John Locke’s proposition of anti-authoritarian government became the colonists’ foundation for which they based their law.

Many of the age-old political customs in England allowed for the mistreatment of English citizens by the King. The primary purpose of the colonists’ journey to America was to escape these hardships. As I briefly studied the Constitution and Declaration of Independence, I found that the writers wanted to disable the possibility of this occurring by limiting the power of government.

Out of these 3 major inspirations to the colonists I believe English common law sparked the most inspiration within the colonists. Their mission was to travel to America where they would no longer have to bear the same abuses they did in England. By selecting various concepts from the long-lasting and ever-changing English Common Law, they constructed a government that...