Divine right of kings the monarchy from the third

Divine right of kings (the monarchy )—from the third century on, kings in Europe claimed that
their right to rule the people of their state was absolute and came directly from God and their
claim was supported by the Church; the theory was that God gave the rights of the people and the
power to rule them directly; the people did not own their lives, their liberty, or property, as all
were entrusted to the king by God; the concept of “natural rights” disputes the “divine right of
kings.”
John Locke and his Second Treatise on Civil Government (1698 )— John Locke’s refutation of
the divine right of kings argued during the Enlightenment that God did not give these rights to
the king, that these “natural rights,” the rights of man to their lives, liberty, and property, were
given directly to each individual man directly by God and that any government over men had to

be one that operated with the consent of those governed; this social contract between man and
the state (the king) was based on those being governed consenting to give over some of their
natural rights to the state, which, in turn provided protection and services to the people being
governed.
natural rights —As stated by Locke, each individual’s right to “life, liberty, and property,” rights
given to each man directly from God, not to the king; for a government to be formed, the people
must consent to be governed.
Locke’s influence on Jefferson— Jefferson used Locke’s ideas in the Declaration of
Independence which he wrote for the Continental Congress in 1776, referring to the “unalienable
rights” of all men to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness .... ” The Declaration of
Independence was a statement by the Continental Congress to British government and the world
at large as to why they were breaking away from their mother country and establishing their own
government in America; the Declaration of Independence was not a constitution or legislation, it
was a statement by those calling for independence from Great Britain, independence based on
many of the ideas of Locke and other Enlightenment authors.
3/5ths Compromise --Compromise during Constitutional Convention of 1787 dealing with
representation in the House of Representatives for the southern states; southern states would be
allowed to count each of its slaves as 3/5ths of a person for purposes of counting citizens for
representation in the U.S. House
Article VII of the Constitution of 1789 required that only 9 of the 13 states were needed to ratify
the new U.S. Constitution
Charles Beard —In his book, An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution of the United
States , Beard put forth the idea that the Founding Fathers were not totally selfless men, but were
motivated by their own economic self-interest in abandoning the Articles of Confederation and
creating the Constitution of 1789.