Plagiarism anyone?

When Jefferson drew up the rough draft of the Declaration of Independence, he must have had access to, or at the very least knowledge of John Locke's work regarding government, formally known as the Second Treatise of Government (1690), in particular his work in Chapter Eight, 'Of the Beginning of Political Societies', and Chapter 17, 'Of Tyranny'. The ideas and in some parts the very language is 'borrowed' from John Locke.

The Declaration of Independence is, in essence, a letter of grievances that justify denouncing all affiliation with the British as a governing body. Along with the actual list of charges against the British Crown, the main body of this article is taken from John Locke (1632-1704) according to authors David Stewart and Gene Blocker in their work Fundamentals of Philosophy (1992). According to these authors, we can best see the paraphrasing of Locke's work if we compare the paragraphs beginning, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,..." (Declaration of Independence, 1776) with Locke's work in Chapter Eight, Of the Beginning of Political Societies which states, "Men being, as has been said, by nature all free, equal, and independent, no one can be put out of this estate, and subjected to the political power of another, without his own consent, which is done by agreeing with other men to join and unite into a community for their comfortable, safe, and peaceable living one amongst another, in a secure enjoyment of their properties, and a greater security against any that are not of it..." (Stewart, Blocker, 1992, pp. 445, 450). The parallels between ideas in these statements is striking. Locke went into great detail regarding the justifications for and responsibilities of a governing body, as well as justifications for throwing over said government if it is demonstrated to be working against the best interests of it's people (Locke, 1690). Such was the case and the argument in the Declaration of Independence (1776).

Let us look at another example, relative to the two documents in question, in particular Locke's definitions of Tyranny in Chapter 17 and Jefferson's carefully crafted grievances based on claims of tyranny. The first impression one gets is that Jefferson's arguments seem based on Locke's definition of tyranny. In other words, the accusations in Jefferson's work against the monarchy fit neatly into Locke's definitions of tyranny. (Locke, 1690; The Declaration of Independence, 1776)

Interestingly, the Declaration of Independence is sometimes heralded as a 'unique' and groundbreaking document in political thought... How can this be? As Stewart and Blocker present the material (p. 445), and in reading the two separate bodies of writing for myself, Jefferson's draft and the resulting Declaration of Independence could be argued as plagiarism. These ideas regarding government had already been established in much greater detail by John Locke nearly one century before The Declaration of Independence was written.


REFERENCES

The Declaration of Independence. (1776). Retrieved October 20, 2007, from http://www.archives.gov/national-archives-experience/charters/declaration.html

Locke, J. (1690). Second treatise on government. Retrieved October 20, 2007, from http://libertyonline.hypermall.com/Locke/second/second-frame.html

Stewart, D., Blocker, G. H. (1992). Fundamentals of Philosophy, 3rd ed. New York: Macmillon Publishing Company.