Answer:
It inspired Americans to move toward self-rule by declaring independence from a government that denied them representation.
John Locke apparently had the biggest impact on the Declaration. In his book, Two Treatises on Government, he said that the three fundamental rights of man were life, freedom, and property. Thomas Jefferson improved this lightly into the popular statement, We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal and they are given by their Creator with individual unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuance of Happiness.