On Declaring the Laws and Rights of Nature

Summary

Introduction

In 1776, American Revolutionaries dissolved the political bands connecting them to king and country, and they established a new nation based on certain philosophic principles. In contrast to the monarchical and aristocratic societies of Europe, the Founding Fathers established governments, according to John Taylor of Caroline (1753–1824), “rooted in moral or intellectual principles” rather than in “orders, clans or [castes].” John Adams (1735–1826) captured the deepest meaning of the American Revolution when he asked and answered a simple but crucial question:

What do we mean by the Revolution? The War? That was no part of the Revolution; it was only an effect and consequence of it. The Revolution was in the minds of the people, and this was effected, from 1760 to 1775, in the course of fifteen years before a drop of blood was shed at Lexington.

Adams was suggesting that the deepest cause of the American Revolution was to be found in a radical transformation of the colonists' most basic values and principles. Put more precisely, the question inspired by Adams was this: how was the American mind revolutionized in the years between 1760 and 1775 and what new ideas shaped America's revolutionary consciousness?

This much is clear: American Revolutionaries appealed to moral principles they considered to be absolute, permanent, and true in order to justify the extraordinary course of action they were about to embark upon.