Did the Founding Fathers make the right choice in basing their new government off the beliefs of John Locke rather than Thomas Hobbes?

Yes.

Explanation:

Thomas Hobbes argued that the existence of a government should imply the waiver of some rights that human beings had. This is because for Hobbes, the human being lived in a "natural state" of complete mess, confusion and violence, where all the actions of the human being were to protect his own life. However, this state of chaos demanded the creation of a government, which would control the rights of human beings, thus being able to reduce all the confusion of the natural state.

John Locke, on the other hand, believes that the "natural state" of men is a state of peace and organization, in which case, the creation of a government should not imply the limitation of rights, but the administration of rights, organizing them and guaranteeing the enjoyment of natural rights by people, the most important of which is property.

Although this is not always seen in the current government, we must not tolerate the reduction of rights on account of the government, and we must reinforce the government's responsibility to allow free access to rights and the good quality of life of its citizens. Therefore, we can confirm that the founding fathers chose well, in applying the concepts of Locke and not Hobbes in the creation of the US government.