Dbq Enlightenment Analysis

The United States’ government attempted to uphold the revolutionary principles although they sometimes failed, overall they succeeded in honoring the enlightenment ideas. The colonists wanted the government to give them the rights that they thought were automatic. For some of those ideas the government did great at upholding them but for others they didn’t uphold them as well. The enlightenment thinkers did a great job of laying a basis for the future governments to build off of. The enlightenment thinkers provided an inspiration for the colonists and for the government. In the “Second Treatise on Government” by John Locke, he expands on his original enlightenment ideas. He expands on the idea that the government shouldn’t have too much power.
They succeeded in most ways but there were a few instances where they were very similar to Britain. As shown in document 4 some of the military uniforms during the Revolutionary War looked extremely similar to Britain's military uniforms. Having American soldiers dress like the enemy (Britain) went against the enlightenment principles. The other time that the government failed to uphold the enlightenment principles was during times of slavery. Having slavery and even racism as shown in document 5 goes against equality and freedom for all people. It creates a border between the people that violates certain people’s rights. Even though slavery and racism affected some of the people's views and treatment of minorities the government still attempted to keep their Revolutionary principles. For example, the government still attempted to uphold the idea of majority rule, minority right. Even though for votes the majority won, the government still attempted to honor the minorities and give them their rights. From doing this it is an effort to uphold the idea of equality for all
In his book “Common Sense” (Document 3) he points out was that America isn’t like Britain and how it can stay different from Britain. America doesn’t have a king that solely rules over it, we have laws that help to govern us. With the absence of a king it creates a different government from Britain. Thomas Paine also points out his view on freedom. He goes with the enlightenment thinkers in saying that freedom is good, if we didn’t have freedom bad things would come. He points out that freedom was the main cause of Americans wanting to start the revolution. If people then went through all that trouble to get their freedom the government should uphold that main and arguably the most important revolutionary principle. He uses his views and writings to influence the government and create a basis for them to rule off