The rights of the colonists remained relatively unchanged between the years before and after the war. Across the Atlantic Ocean, John Locke, a prominent philosopher, asserted “that all people have natural rights and that if a monarchy violates those rights, then the people have the right to overthrow the monarch” (Document 4). The American Founding Fathers heavily drew on this idea that a monarchy should respect the rights of its citizens. When the colonists felt misrepresented by the English Monarchy, they internalized the words of Locke and sought to restore their natural rights that had been present under salutary neglect. In the American Colonies, they established ideals of what rights and liberties all citizens deserved for many years