Enlightenment Thinkers Application

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain

unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

—Declaration of Independence, 1776

• Cesare Beccaria

• Olympe de Gouges

• John Locke

• Jean-Jacques Rousseau

• Voltaire

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed. —U. S. Bill of Rights

• Cesare Beccaria

• Olympe de Gouges

• John Locke

• Jean-Jacques Rousseau

• Voltaire

The free communication of ideas and opinions is one of the most precious of the rights of man. Every citizen may thus speak, write, and print with freedom, but shall be responsible for such abuses of this freedom as shall be defined by law.

—Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen, 1789

• Cesare Beccaria

• Olympe de Gouges

• John Locke

• Jean-Jacques Rousseau

• Voltaire

All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.

The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America.

The judicial Power shall be vested in one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may ordain and establish.

—U.S. Constitution

• Cesare Beccaria

• Olympe de Gouges

• Montesquieu

• Jean-Jacques Rousseau

• Voltaire

In 2003, the communities of Freetown andLakeville, Massachusetts held their annual town meetings and voted on the budget for the school district. Freetown voters approved a budget that reduced their contribution by $100,000 from what the School Committee asked for.

• Cesare Beccaria

• Olympe de Gouges

• Montesquieu

• Jean-Jacques Rousseau

• Mary Wollstonecraft

The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.

Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

—U. S. Bill of Rights

• Cesare Beccaria

• Olympe de Gouges

• Montesquieu

• Jean-Jacques Rousseau

• Mary Wollstonecraft

As all persons are held innocent until they have been declared guilty, if arrest is considered essential, all harshness not necessary for the securing of the person shall be severely repressed by law.

—Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen, 1789

• Cesare Beccaria

• Olympe de Gouges

• John Locke

• Jean-Jacques Rousseau

• Mary Wollstonecraft

 No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

—U.S. Bill of Rights

• Cesare Beccaria

• Olympe de Gouges

• Montesquieu

• Jean-Jacques Rousseau

• Mary Wollstonecraft

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.

—U.S. Bill of Rights, 1791

• Cesare Beccaria

• John Locke

• Montesquieu

• Jean-Jacques Rousseau

• Voltaire

Every Bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and the Senate, shall, before it become a Law, be presented to the President of the United States; if he approve he shall sign it, but if not he shall return it, with his Objections to that House in which it shall have originated, who shall…proceed to reconsider it. 

—U.S. Constitution

• Cesare Beccaria

• John Locke

• Montesquieu

• Jean-Jacques Rousseau

• Mary Wollstonecraft