Read the passage. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

–The Declaration of Independence, 1776

Which Enlightenment idea most influenced the writers of the Declaration of Independence and the independence movement in the colonies

John Locke’s argument that government derives its power from the consent of the governed to protect natural rights
Thomas Hobbes’s argument that government needed to be strong to control an inherently evil populace
Baron de Montesquieu’s argument that government should reflect the culture and environment of the governed
Adam Smith’s argument that the purpose of government is to enforce only the laws necessary to allow the economy to function freely