...thought was its insistence that all individuals are free, equal, and independent in the state of nature, "wherein all the power and jurisdiction is reciprocal, no one having more than another."3 In the eighteenth century, Jefferson appealed to "nature and nature's law" in the Declaration...

...possible, all humans are sufficiently alike to qualify as possessors. As John Locke puts it, "there [is] nothing more evident than that creatures of the same species and rank . . . born to all the same advantages of nature and the use of the same faculties should also be equal...

...(para 54). Locke makes a passionate argument that all men (and in extension all women) live in a state: of Equality, wherein all the Power and Jurisdiction is reciprocal, no one having more than one another: there being nothing more evident, than thai creatures of the same species and ranks promiscuously...

..."what state all men are naturally in"; he argues that this is not only "a state of perfect freedom" but "a state also of equality, wherein all the power and...jurisdiction is reciprocal, no one having more than another."2 The connection between natural liberty and natural equality is clear. If men are not equal...

...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.' And, as he goes on: That law, teaches all mankind, who will but consult it, that being all equal and...

..."what state all men are naturally in"; he argues that this is not only "a state of perfect freedom" but "a state also of equality, wherein all the power and...jurisdiction is reciprocal, no one having more than another."1 The connection between natural liberty and natural equality is clear. If men are not equal...

...sovereign. Locke saw things differently. He believed that people were born into a state of nature, "A State also of equality, wherein all the Power and Jurisdiction is reciprocal, no one having more power than another, . . . without Subordination of Subjection."26 People have natural rights, he argued,...

...creation of the human person.'7 God created all of us in what was, morally speaking, "[a] state . . . of equality, wherein all the power and jurisdiction is reciprocal, no one having more than another" (2nd T: 4), all of us lords, all of us kings, each of us "equal to the greatest, and subject to no...

...the natural state of "man," he says this is not only "a state of perfect freedom," but also "a state of equality, wherein all the power and jurisdiction is reciprocal, no one having more than another." In the liberal states of the North Atlantic — the United Kingdom, France, the United States, and...

...without asking leave, or depending upon the Will of any other Man."47 Natural man is also in a state of equality, "wherein all the Power and Jurisdiction is reciprocal, no one having more than another."48 Since human beings are God's property and "all equal and independent, no one ought to harm...