Description
We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they’re endowed by their Author with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
We have heard and read this sentence all our lives. It is perfectly familiar. But if we pause long enough to ask ourselves why Jefferson wrote it in exactly this way, questions quickly arise.
Jefferson chose to use fairly special and very precise terms. He did not simply claim that we’ve got these rights; he claimed they’re unalienable. Why unalienable”? Unalienable, of course, means not alienable. Why was once the distinction between alienable and unalienable rights so important to the Founders that it made its way into the Declaration? For that matter, where did it come from? You might almost get the impression that the Founders’ examination of our rights had focused on alienable versus unalienable rightsand you would be correct.
In addition, the Declaration does not simply claim that these are truths; it claims they’re self-evident truths. Why self-evident”? The Declaration’s special claim about its truths, it turns out, is the results of those same deliberations because of which, in the words of George Washington, the rights of mankind were better understood and more clearly defined than at any former period.”
If a friendly visitor from another country sat you down and asked you with sincere interest why the Declaration highlights these very special terms, could you answer them clearly and correctly and with confidence? Do you want so as to?
We have heard and read this sentence all our lives. It is perfectly familiar. But if we pause long enough to ask ourselves why Jefferson wrote it in exactly this way, questions quickly arise.
Jefferson chose to use fairly special and very precise terms. He did not simply claim that we’ve got these rights; he claimed they’re unalienable. Why unalienable”? Unalienable, of course, means not alienable. Why was once the distinction between alienable and unalienable rights so important to the Founders that it made its way into the Declaration? For that matter, where did it come from? You might almost get the impression that the Founders’ examination of our rights had focused on alienable versus unalienable rightsand you would be correct.
In addition, the Declaration does not simply claim that these are truths; it claims they’re self-evident truths. Why self-evident”? The Declaration’s special claim about its truths, it turns out, is the results of those same deliberations because of which, in the words of George Washington, the rights of mankind were better understood and more clearly defined than at any former period.”
If a friendly visitor from another country sat you down and asked you with sincere interest why the Declaration highlights these very special terms, could you answer them clearly and correctly and with confidence? Do you want so as to?
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