The Revolutionary War: Britain’s Mistakes and America’s Reasons to Revolt

 He firmly showed his patriotism and desire to rebel when he yelled in the courtroom, “Give me liberty, or give me death!” (Patrick Henry). Henry would rather fight to the death than live under the rule of the British. Perhaps one of the greatest minds of the time, John Adams, supported the cause for liberty. He followed what Locke had expressed and he believed that a neglected colonial body did indeed have the right to overthrow its government and set up their own in its place. John Adams says, “Liberty must at all hazards be supported. We have a right to it, derived from our Maker. But if we had not, our fathers have earned and bought it for us, at the expense of their ease, their estates, their pleasure, and their blood.” (John Adams 1775). When Adams says that, “… have a right to it, derived from our Maker” he is talking about Locke’s natural rights. These natural rights are life, liberty, and property (later changed to the pursuit of happiness). The injustices enacted upon them and the acts forced upon them finally convinced the colonists to mount a full scale rebellion against the British government. On July 4, 1776 the Second Continental Congress finally declared independence from Britain in the from of The Declaration of Independence. The ideas of Locke and many other philosophes helped contribute to the feeling of patriotism in the colonies and the rebellion. At the signing of the Declaration, Ben Franklin stated, “We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.” He meant that united, the colonies had a fighting chance, but separated they were doomed to fail.