The Katipunan Legacy French Revolution, the Latin American Revolutions, the Revolutions of 1848 in 50 countries, the Spanish Glorious revolution of 1868, the Philippine Revolution of 1896 and even Sun Yat Sen’s National Revolution in China. In this era, which became known as the Age of Enlightenment, some of the most prominent philosophers to emerge in the cause of Liberalism were Spinoza, John Locke 1632– 1704), Pierre Bayle (1647–1706), Newton (1643–1727), Voltaire (1694–1778) and Rousseau (1712 – 1778). c) What are the core beliefs of Liberalism? Libertarians, or liberals, believed that by natural law, all humans are born equal and are endowed with inalienable rights. John Locke6, identified these inalienable rights as “life, liberty, and estate (property)”. Thomas Jefferson’s reformulation of this dictum was adopted by the defiant Continental Congress on July 4, 1776 (which would become known as the US Declaration of Independence): We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men [sic] are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights as the rights that included Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. The French Revolution battle cry, “liberté, égalité, fraternité” (liberty, equality, fraternity), was an adaptation of the motto of Masonic Lodges, which Liberals and Republicans managed to transform as centers of liberalism. Liberals believed that these inalienable rights could not be taken away by the state (monarchies and the papacy at that time). Governments, they asserted, must derive their existence and powers from a social contract with the people and their continuing consent. The basic binding contract of this relationship was the constitution. The continuing consent of the people was derived from elections and referendums. Locke proposed that man could not be trusted by his own devices for he was by nature selfish and could do harm to the general public. Government, therefore, must always act on the basis of consent from the people. The French Revolution came out with a “Declaration of the Rights of Man” which would be approved by the National Assembly on August 26, 1789. It became the basis of the French Constitution. The Declaration provides the classic premises of Liberalism. 29