Yes. The Founding Fathers were very influenced by the Enlightenment movement, especially by the philosopher John Locke. John Locke defended the idea that every one of us has natural rights, these natural rights are life, liberty, and property. The role of the government is defending those rights and make possible for them to be accomplished. Once the government fails to do so, people have the right to rebel against this government and form a new one that defends these rights. Because of that, the Founding Fathers justified the rebellion against the British.
What led to the outbreak of the bloodiest conflict in the history of North America? A common explanation is that the Civil War was fought over the moral issue of slavery. In fact, it was the economics of slavery and political control of that system that was central to the conflict.
