Declaration of Independence
The Continental Congress adopted the Declaration on July 4, 1776, in Philadelphia. Thomas Jefferson drafted the text in roughly 17 days; Franklin and Adams edited it. Its second paragraph stated that governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, and that the people may alter or abolish governments that fail this standard. The language was drawn almost directly from John Locke's Second Treatise of Government (1689). It was the first time a national founding document grounded authority in popular consent rather than divine appointment or hereditary right.
The line was drafted by Jefferson, revised by Franklin and Adams. It borrowed directly from Locke's Second Treatise. What was new was not the idea, but its enshrinement as the founding premise of an actual working state.
03 · Consent of the Governed
Locke, Rousseau, and the revolutions they inspired reframed the question entirely. Legitimacy no longer flowed from God to king. It flowed from the governed to the government. It was a radical idea in 1776. It's now so assumed that most people can't name its source.
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