My (Burr Cook) ancestors, the Gates family, a large number of which are buried at Hopewell, were early settlers in the area, coming from Keene NH. Route 20, passing through the middle of the township, was at that time a log road and the first toll turnpike in the state long before the thruway was thought of.
State of Nature. State of nature refers to a condition in which there is no established political authority. It is essentially a state of complete freedom. Political theorists have used it to better understand human nature and, typically, to justify the rationality of a particular type of government.
For Locke, in the state of nature all men are free to order their actions, and dispose of their possessions and persons, as they think fit, within the bounds of the law of nature. (2nd Tr., Â§4). The state of Nature has a law of Nature to govern it, and that law is reason. Locke believes that reason teaches that no one ought to harm another in his life, liberty, and or property (2nd Tr., Â§6) ; and that transgressions of this may be punished.