The Enlightenment in Action

The Enlightenment swept across Europe in a relatively short period of time, and it was not long before the ideas of John Locke and the Baron de Montesquieu crossed the Atlantic Ocean to the British colonies. There, they inspired leaders of the eventual United States to separate themselves from Great Britain and form a new country.

Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson was born in 1743 to Peter Jefferson and Jane Randolph. His father was a planter and a surveyor; his mother was a member of a well-established Virginia family. An avid student, Jefferson excelled at the College of William and Mary, where he studied law, a field that he entered upon graduation. He also served in various capacities in the Virginia Colony’s government, including sitting in the House of Burgesses. During the American Revolution, Jefferson became a leading voice in the movement for American independence and was selected by the Second Continental Congress in 1776 to author the Declaration of Independence. Jefferson, like many other colonial leaders, drew inspiration from the writings of European Enlightenment thinkers, especially those of John Locke. The Declaration of Independence reflected Locke’s belief that all people have certain natural rights and that citizens enter into a social contract with their government in exchange for the protection of these rights. If the government fails to hold up its end of the social contract, then the citizens have the right to overthrow the government. Jefferson used these tenets as the basis of his argument for American independence. Thomas Jefferson was elected governor of Virginia from 1779 to 1781, after which he took a brief break from public service. In 1784, he traveled to France, where he assumed the position of trade commissioner. He later became minister to France, following in the footsteps of his contemporary, Benjamin Franklin. During this time, Jefferson immersed himself in French culture. Jefferson would go on to serve as secretary of state to George Washington in 1790, vice president to John Adams in 1796, and then president of the United States in 1800. Jefferson retired to his estate at Monticello in 1809 after serving two terms as president, where he maintained his commitment to philosophical and scientific study. Two of Jefferson’s last acts include selling his book collection to the U.S. government (a transaction that would lay the foundation for the Library of Congress) and founding the University of Virginia. Thomas Jefferson, the Declaration of Independence, and Natural Rights Following the French and Indian War, the British colonies came under increased scrutiny by Parliament. The colonists grew increasingly dissatisfied with their relationship with Great Britain. Taxation without representation and various other abuses by the British Crown led many colonists to the conclusion that action must be taken. As the author of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson drew inspiration from Locke’s concept of natural rights. While Locke contended that all people have the right to “life, liberty, and property,” Jefferson adapted his words in the Preamble of the Declaration of Independence, stating that “all men” are entitled to certain natural rights, including “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” Jefferson further expanded upon Locke’s conception of the social contract by explaining that “governments are instituted among Men” for the purpose of protecting such rights, and “That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government.”

1 Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin was born in 1706 in Boston, Massachusetts, the tenth of seventeen children. Though Franklin had a limited formal education, he was a voracious and largely self-taught reader. Franklin was apprenticed to his older brother, a printer, when he was twelve years old. For five years, Franklin worked diligently to master the trade. Additionally, Franklin honed his skills as a proficient writer, submitting a series of satirical essays to his brother’s newspaper, The New England Courant, under the pseudonym of Silence Dogood, reputed to be a middle-aged woman. A controversy regarding the newspaper led to Franklin’s discharge from his brother’s service, and Franklin left Boston shortly thereafter, first trying his luck in New York before finding employment in Philadelphia in 1723. In 1724, Franklin sailed to England where he worked for two years as a printer. Franklin’s love affair with the European continent, especially with English society and culture, was forged during this time. Franklin returned to Philadelphia in 1726, where he started a highly successful printing business with a partner. He assumed complete ownership of the business in 1728. In the years that followed, Franklin founded the Junto, a debate club whose members discussed philosophy and politics, among other things. Profits from the print shop, along with a series of wise investments, made Franklin exceedingly wealthy and allowed him to retire from business in 1748. But that did not mean Franklin stopped working. He dedicated much of his time to studying natural phenomena, especially electricity. He also committed himself to public service. In 1757, Franklin traveled to England as a representative of the Pennsylvania Assembly. Franklin stayed in London for approximately eighteen years, with the exception of a two-year stint back in the colonies between 1762 and 1764. Franklin took full advantage of his time in England, capitalizing on his renown and moving among literary and philosophical circles. A seemingly staunch loyalist to the British crown, Franklin begrudgingly accepted the Stamp Act in 1765 as a necessary evil, despite the outcry and opposition from the colonies. Between 1765 and 1774, Franklin tried unsuccessfully to soften relations between the colonies and England, before returning to North American in 1775. In 1776, Franklin was elected to the Second Continental Congress and assisted Thomas Jefferson in authoring the Declaration of Independence, a document that reflected the ideas of the American philosophe and other Enlightenment thinkers. Franklin eagerly traveled to France that same year to gain French support for the American Revolution. Franklin played a part in drafting the Treaty of Paris while in France, which brought the American Revolution to an end. Franklin returned to North America in 1785 and experienced a mixed reception; many former colonists distrusted Franklin and viewed him as more European than American. Despite that fact, Franklin’s clever mind was put to work at the Constitutional Convention, and Franklin became a signatory of the document in 1787. He died in 1790 at the age of eighty-four.

James Madison

James Madison was born in 1751 in Virginia to a successful tobacco planter. A voracious reader and accomplished student, young Madison demonstrated a penchant for learning languages, a subject he would continue to study during his time at the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University). It took Madison just two years to earn a degree, though it would be another year before he returned to his family’s estate, Montpelier, to study law independently. It was around this time that Madison first began a career in public service, accepting a position on the pro-revolutionary Committee of Safety in Virginia.

2 In 1776, Madison became a delegate to the Virginia Convention, where he worked closely with Thomas Jefferson to draft and pass important pieces of legislation, including statutes that enforced religious tolerance. Two years later, Madison was appointed to the Virginia Council of State, the body charged with governing Virginia through the American Revolution. At the age of twenty-nine, Madison was selected as the youngest delegate to the Continental Congress, and he quickly made a name for himself as a leading proponent of a stronger national government. Less than a decade later, in 1787, Madison helped facilitate the numerous debates and compromises that led to the drafting and passage of the U.S. Constitution. Deemed the “Father of the Constitution,” Madison drew inspiration for the U.S. government structure from the Baron de Montesquieu. Madison designed a system in which power is divided among three branches, and each branch has the ability to check the power of the other two branches. James Madison was also instrumental in the ratification of the Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments to the Constitution. Madison later went on to serve as secretary of state under Thomas Jefferson and was elected to the presidency in 1808. His two terms as president were largely defined by the U.S. conflict with Great Britain during the War of 1812. Madison lived out his remaining years at his family estate in Virginia where he continued to study and write, occasionally dabbled in public service, and supported the University of Virginia. He died in 1836. Baron de Montesquieu and the U.S. Constitution The ideas of the Baron de Montesquieu largely influenced James Madison in helping draft the U.S. Constitution. Baron de Montesquieu believed in the separation of powers in government. The division of power and responsibility among three branches—legislative, executive, and judicial—would prevent any one part of government from becoming too powerful and oppressing its people. Madison adopted the concept of separation of powers in drafting the U.S. Constitution, outlining the three distinct branches that make up the U.S. government to this day.