“To understand political power right, and derive it from its original, we must consider what state all men are naturally in, and that is, a state of perfect freedom to order their actions, and dispose of their possessions and persons, as they think fit, within the bounds of the law of nature, without asking leave, or depending upon the will of any other man.
“A state also of equality, wherein all the power and jurisdiction is reciprocal, no one having more than another. . . .
“The state of nature has a law of nature to govern it which obliges every one . . . that being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions.”
John Locke, Two Treatises of Government, 1689
Question
The ideas in the excerpt were most likely interpreted by American colonists in the 1770s as a call to reject which of the following?
Responses
The holding of private property
The holding of private property
The establishment of representative democracy
The establishment of representative democracy
The acceptance of the divine right of kings
The acceptance of the divine right of kings
The creation of political parties