The first problem was the Navigation Acts that were enforced in 1651. …show more content…
Thomas Jefferson was a Virginia planter and lawyer who became an American statesman and philosopher during the Revolution. He was very educated and believed in Enlightenment. Jefferson’s Draft of the Declaration of Independence was filled with Enlightenment ideas. In Jefferson’s Draft of the Declaration of Independence, he stated that he attempted to produce “an expression of the American Mind.” (104) Not everyone agreed on Jefferson’s Draft because they had their own interpretations and wanted some adjustments to be made. One Enlightenment idea that was displayed were the natural rights of human in this statement “we hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their creator with inherent and inalienable rights”.(104) Another one of Jefferson’s Enlightenment ideas that was stated was “to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, & institute new government.” (104) This statement represents the Enlightenment idea that people should have a say in government and …show more content…
As a result, the new constitution embodied “Enlightenment principles as social contract, popular sovereignty, and separation of power.” (116) The Massachusetts Bill of Rights started off the state’s constitution in