The founding documents of the United States of America establish the principle that government has legitimacy only with the consent of the governed. However, the standard set by this commitment to government “of the people, by the people, and for the people” is notoriously difficult to attain in the real world. This paper elucidates the challenges of meeting the ideal of consensual government through an examination of how readily consent can be inferred at relevant stages in the emergence of modern America.

Section II examines the principles underpinning the Declaration of Independence, and the standard they established for subsequent governments. Section III highlights the challenges faced in trying to move from revolution to a presumption of consensual political community. Section IV analyzes the possibility of locating express consent in the early settlement of America. Section V elucidates the possibility for legitimizing political communities via tacit consent, using colonial America as an example. Section VI considers the shift from state to federal power that occurred with the signing of the U.S. Constitution, and the implications of this shift for the consensual nature of government in the United States.

KEYWORDS: Consent Theory, John Locke, Founding of America