Assignment Three

"The natural liberty of man, by entering into society, is abridged or restrained, so far only as is necessary for the great end of society, the best good of the whole."

"In short, it is the greatest absurdity to suppose it in the power of one, or any number of men, at the entering into society, to renounce their essential natural rights, or the means of preserving those rights; when the grand end of civil government, from the very nature of its institution, is for the support, protection, and defense of those very rights; the principal of which, as is before observed, are Life, Liberty, and Property. If men, through fear, fraud, or mistake, should in terms renounce or give up any essential natural right, the eternal law of reason and the grand end of society would absolutely vacate such renunciation. The right to freedom being the gift of God Almighty, it is not in the power of man to alienate this gift and voluntarily become a slave."

 The first quote basically states that if a society does take away anyone's natural rights, it should only be to protect or ensure the greater good of the people in that society or just to ensure a good civil government in general.
The second quote states that it is absurd to accept that a society can take anyway anyone's natural rights just because a person enters that society. The point of civil government or society is to preserve and support a person's natural rights instead of taking them away. Moreover Adams states that man should also have the right to life, liberty and property within a society and civil government should be there to protect these rights not take them away. He also believed that a person's natural rights was a gift from God and therefore should not be taking away. Furthermore since these natural rights are a gift from God only God has the power to take them away or judge them. Lastly Adams states that it is absurd to voluntarily become a slave by giving up one's natural rights due to a society or civil government. He felt that no one should every have to do that in any civil government. Overall Adams doesn't believe that government should have the power to do anything that will infringe on anyways natural rights as it is a part of everyone that should never be removed.

The reason why I picked this quote was because i fully agree with what Samuel Adams states. I believe that government should only allow others to be safe. In this allowing the people of that so city to be safe it shouldn't interfere with anyone's natural rights. Government should also be in place to allow every person in that government to practice there natural right freely and safely, without the worry that someone else would interfere. I believed that Adams didn't seem to have the fear of people's natural rights such as the puritans and John Winthrop did. They both believed that a person's natural rights were evil and had to be tamed and diminished by government in order to have a good society. Contrary to the puritans and Winthrop, Adams believed that that a person's natural right was a gift from God instead of a curse. As Adman's did, I believed that it is absurd to thing that all men are evil and only government can make a man righteous, moral or good. Civil government isn't something that has always been around and somehow during that time people were still able to co-exist and prosper. So it may be necessary, but only to a certain extent. As Adam's says a necessarily evil for the greater good.