We hold these truths to be self-evident

Declaration of Independence

There are certain things that are just so obvious they don’t need to be taught.  The Declaration lists some of these self-evident truths.  Unfortunately, if these truths were so self-evident then, why do they seem to be missing today?  Even when these words were written our Founding Fathers knew that although all men may be created equal, they certainly weren’t treated that way.  And though we are created with the right to life, today it seems that life is treated cheaply, liberty is routinely ignored in favor of getting what is wanted, and we think we have a right to be happy rather than to pursue it.

So, what are these truths that our founders thought were so obvious they were self evident?

That all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

All men are created equal

History shows that rarely were all men or women treated equal, but our Founding Fathers said it was obvious that they were created equal.  Those who wrote and signed the Declaration of Independence recognized that people were not treated equally.  Slavery was an obvious inequity in the treatment of men, and the entire British political system was based on the differences between classes.  British soldiers were given preferential treatment in court and colonists were denied proper representation.  Landowners often took advantage of those who farmed their land and employers routinely expected more from their employees than they were willing to give in return.

The point of the Declaration was that while this was obliviously not the way mankind treated all its members, they recognized that all were created equal and they wanted to create a land where they could be treated that way.  Yes, slavery was a fact of life in the American colonies, but if you read the debates over the Constitution you’ll see that not only was a structure put in place to eliminate slavery, but to create a land where all were treated equally under the law.  Does that mean everyone will live an equal life?  No!  The circumstances of your birth, the decisions you make, or the work you pursue all impact the outcomes of your life.  But America was created where everyone has an equal chance to pursue their own version of happiness as long as it does not infringe on the unalienable rights of others.

Unalienable rights

What is an unalienable right?  In short, it is a right you have just for being alive, and while people may infringe on them, these rights cannot be taken away.  (You can listen to my podcast episode on unalienable rights.) . These rights are given to you by your creator, not government, therefore they cannot be taken away by government.  Among these unalienable rights, three are listed.

Life

You have a right to your life and nobody can take that away from you; only you can forfeit your right to life.  Whether an unborn baby or a senior citizen, you own your life and it cannot legitimately be taken away from you.

Did you notice that I said only you can forfeit your life?  That’s because when you threaten the life or health of an innocent person you put your life in jeopardy.  Whether you are killed during the commission of a crime or found guilty of illegally taking the life of another, you have forfeited your right to life by your own actions.  In the case of the government putting someone to death for a crime, I believe due process requires a very high level of proof, but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s the consequences of your own actions by which your life was taken.

Liberty

So what is liberty?  We think of liberty as a singular freedom, but there is much more to it.

LIB’ERTY, Freedom from restraint, in a general sense, and applicable to the body, or to the will or mind. The body is at liberty when not confined; the will or mind is at liberty when not checked or controlled. A man enjoys liberty when no physical force operates to restrain his actions or volitions.

Webster’s 1828 Dictionary

Liberty, in general, is the freedom from restraint.  Do we live in a land where we are free from restraint?  While our founders created a land where restraint was focused on the central government rather than the people, today that has flipped.  More and more we see our governments acting without restraint, usually by placing illegal restraints on its citizens.

Natural liberty consists in the power of acting as one thinks fit, without any restraint or control, except from the laws of nature. It is a state of exemption from the control of others, and from positive laws and the institutions of social life. This liberty is abridged by the establishment of government.

Webster’s 1828 Dictionary

Natural liberty is the freedom of control except for the laws of nature.  The laws of nature are those standards of society so obvious they don’t even need to be written down.  Natural liberty includes the freedom from control of positive laws.  Positive laws are those made by government, as opposed to natural laws.  So based on this definition, natural liberty is the freedom that is so obvious that it doesn’t need to be written down.  In other words, natural liberty is self-evident.

Pursuit of Happiness

HAPPINESS, The agreeable sensations which spring from the enjoyment of good; that state of a being in which his desires are gratified, by the enjoyment of pleasure without pain;

Webster’s 1828 Dictionary

Interestingly enough, the phrase originally was “life, liberty and property” from John Locke’s writings.  However, Jefferson changed it to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”, which I think makes a very important distinction.

If you have a right to property, shouldn’t it be required by society that you have some?  What Locke described was the function of government, to protect your right to life, liberty and property, not to provide it for you.  What Jefferson wrote in the Declaration makes two important points.

First is the right to pursue.  You do not have a right to happiness, you have the right to pursue it. Contrary to what many Americans think,  nobody owes you a job, a living wage, a house, a car, a cell phone or anything else.  America was created with the self-evident truth that you have the right to pursue whatever makes you happy, as long as you don’t infringe on the rights of others.  When government prevents or hinders you from pursuing happiness, then they are violating your natural liberty.

Second is what you are pursuing.  If owning things makes you happy that’s fine, but if having a little piece of earth all to yourself makes you happy, well, that’s fine as well.  Does working for someone make you happy? Or is it owning your own business?  What about spending time with your family? The point is you have the right to pursue what makes you happy, not what makes someone else happy.  If something will make you happy, then pursue it, but when the government tells you that you must work to provide for the happiness of others, they are infringing on your rights and violating their main purpose.

The point I believe Jefferson made is that you have the right to pursue whatever makes you happy as long as you don’t infringe on the rights of others.  In many ways, it was the restrictions on pursuing what would make the colonists happy that led to our Declaration of Independence in the first place.

Conclusion

Our founders thought that the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness were so obvious and self-evident that they shouldn’t need to be written down.  It was the violation of these rights that led them first to petition for relief from their government in Great Britain and, failing that, to declare independence.  Sadly our governments today, and especially the federal government, seems bent on violating all of these self-evident rights.  Rather than protecting life, laws are passed to find more and more creative ways to justify the illegitimate taking of life.  Others seem obsessed with telling us how we should live our lives, infringing on our natural liberty with positive laws that dictate what jobs we can have, what we can and cannot buy, and how we exercise what few rights our government still recognizes.  Our pursuit of happiness is now dictated by government, whether that is what we can do with our property or the way we wish to live our lives.  None of these federal laws are Constitutional, yet few of us seem to care.  It is sad that these rights, which were so evident to our founding generation, are so foreign to us today.