The Rights of the Colonists

Adams opens the essay by affirming that the essential natural rights of men are life, liberty, and property. He then gives examples pertaining to these categories. Write an essay about the definitions of life, liberty, and property that undergird Adams’s appeals in this essay.

A latent theme in Adams’s essay is inclusion versus exclusion. Where do you see appeals for, or examples of, each of these practices in Adams’s essay? (Hint: To what extent are the colonists included in the British Empire? Where is the exclusion of groups of people justified in Adams’s argument?)

One part of Adams’s essay is concerned with abstract concepts like liberty while another part is concerned with the colonists’ legal standing with the British Empire. What strategies does Adams use to convey his arguments at these two levels of concreteness and abstraction? Do you think he is more persuasive in either the theoretical discussion or the practical discussion? Why?