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Largely Jeffersons work, the Declaration of Independence, adopted July 4, 1776, not only announced the birth of a new nation, but also set forth a philosophy of human freedom that would become a dynamic force throughout the entire world. The Declaration draws upon French and English Enlightenment political philosophy, but one influence in particular stands out: John Lockes Second Treatise on Government. Locke took conceptions of the traditional rights of Englishmen and universalized them into the natural rights of all humankind. Led by Benedict Arnold ,The Americans twice repulsed the British. British General John Burgoyne fell back to Saratoga, New York, where American forces under General Horatio Gates surrounded the British troops. On October 17, 1777, Burgoyne surrendered his entire army. On April 15, 1783, Congress approved the final treaty, and Great Britain and its former colonies signed it on September 3. Known as the Treaty of Paris, the peace settlement acknowledged the independence, freedom and sovereignty of the 13 former colonies, now states, to which Great Britain granted the territory west to the Mississippi River, north to Canada and south to Florida, which was returned to Spain. The fledgling colonies that Richard Henry Lee had spoken of more than seven years before, had finally become free and independent states. The task of knitting together a nation yet remained. In the autumn of 1786, farmers in Massachusetts under the leadership of a former army captain, Daniel Shays, began forcibly to prevent the county courts from sitting and passing further judgments for debt . In January 1787 a ragtag army of 1,200 farmers moved toward the federal arsenal at Springfield. The rebels were repulsed by a small state militia force . This rebellion promoted the transformation of American politics from Confederation to Federalism. He advocated calling upon all the states to appoint representatives for a meeting to be held the following spring in Philadel