Princeton's great John Witherspoon adopted the concept of "Scottish Common Sense Philosophy" that all mankind can grasp first principals through God's gift of reason. This became Princeton's philosophy of the American government. Presidents, Vice Presidents, Senators, Congressmen, Govenors, and Supreme Court Justices came out of Princeton while John Witherspoon was President there. As you can see his Locke and Thomas Reid's Scottish Common Sense Philosophy had a major role in American Government. These philosophies helped shape the evangelical movements in the Great Awakening and the revolutionaries thinking during the American Revolution. He told his students that God created all men equal and those rights and natures place limits on man's powers and governments. This had such a huge impact on the shaping of our country's government which is evident in our United States Constitution and the Virginia Bill of Rights authored by George Mason.