The Appeal to Heaven: Locke's Right of Resistance

Locke's most radical conclusion concerned resistance. Government is a trust, he argued, created to protect life, liberty and property. When rulers act against that trust, for example by seizing property, altering the legislature or trying to make themselves absolute, they put themselves in a state of war with the people. In such cases the people may resist and establish a new government. Who decides when this has happened?

Locke answered that 'the people shall be judge', and when no earthly judge exists, the only remedy is an 'appeal to heaven', meaning a resort to force with the outcome left to God's judgment. He insisted that people would not rebel over minor mistakes, only after 'a long train of abuses'. Critics feared this invited constant rebellion; Locke replied that tyranny, not resistance, was the real cause of disorder. These ideas later echoed loudly in the American Declaration of Independence.