Civil government exists for the well-being of civil society and a government which seriously jeopardizes social interests is rightly changed. Locke distinguishes between just and unjust warfare. Moral validity and force are two distinct things, says Locke, and the latter is incapable of giving rise to the former. Therefore, a civil government which begins in force can be justified, as all governments are justified, only by its recognition and support of the moral rights inherent in individuals and communities. The moral order is permanent and self-perpetuating.
Governments are only factors in the moral order.
A civil government is dissolved either by a change in the location of legislative power or by a violation of the trust which the people have reposed in it. Any invasion of the life, liberty, or property of individuals is ipso facto void and a legislature which attempts these wrongs forfeits its power. In this case, power reverts to the people, who must provide by a new act of legislation for a new legislature. Locke's defense of resistance in the name of inalienable rights of personal liberty, consent, and freedom to acquire and enjoy property had a profound effect on the apologists of the American Revolution. His sincerity, his deep moral conviction, his genuine belief in liberty, in individual rights, and in the dignity of human nature, united with his moderation and good sense, made Locke an ideal spokesman of a middle-class revolution.