Between history and nature: Social contract theory in Locke and the Founders

Part of the problem with the debate between ''liberal'' and ''republican'' historians of early American political thought is the use both sides have made of a false conceptual dichotomy between ''nature'' and ''history'' where the first is taken to be the province of liberal theory and the second belongs to republicanism. A careful reading of Locke's philosophy, however, shows that his theory is carefully positioned between history and nature. A further reading of the theoretical texts of Jefferson and Adams then shows that these two Founders, at least, followed Locke's theory at a very high level of detail. It is Locke's theory that authorizes a simultaneous claim of natural and historical rights.