Liberalism is generally associated with great thinkers such as John Locke and Montesquieu. Locke was a 17th-century English philosopher and political theorist whose nickname was the "Father of Liberalism." His many theories formed the basis of many important works and documents, including the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States. He believed that people had natural rights to "life, liberty, and property," and with that said, Locke believed that the role of government was to preserve these rights as well. If a government has not preserved these rights, then the people have the right to change their government. The other philosopher who ignited the roots of liberalism was Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brède and Montesquieu, but he was generally referred to as Montesquieu. (Go figure.) Montesquieu was a French political philosopher and was considered one of the great political philosophers of the Enlightenment period. Although he was considered generously curious about most of the rules and obligations, he was filled with a "dry" sarcastic humor. He constructed a naturalistic description of the different forms of government and the causes that made these governments what they were. While also showing to what extent their development was then advanced or constrained. He used this story to explain how governments could be kept free from corruption. He considered government to be filled with despotism, in particular, as a permanent danger to any government that was not already despotic. Montesquieu argued that the best way to prevent it was a system in which different organs exercised legislative, executive, and judicial power, and in which all these organs were bound by the rule of law. Montesquieu's theory of the separation of powers had an enormous impact on liberal political theory and the framers of the Constitution of the United States of America. Montesquieu devotes himself to