Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of… Property?
OK, we just celebrated another Fourth of July this weekend (3rd through 5th). So how well do you know the history of our most important document that protects and preserves our Freedoms? Here is something you may have missed….
Did you know that the original draft of the U.S. Constitution basically said that all men have certain unalienable (natural and legal) rights and that among these are Life, Liberty… and YES… Property!
No kidding. The founders felt that the right to obtain the means to acquire and possess property were so important they were akin to our rights of Life and Liberty itself!
Here is the wording in that original draft. It is found in the first and second article of the Virginia Declaration of Rights adopted unanimously by the Virginia Convention of Delegates on June 12, 1776 as written by George Mason.
That all men are by nature equally free and independent, and have certain inherent rights, of which, when they enter into a state of society, they cannot, by any compact, deprive or divest their posterity; namely, the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety.
Interesting, huh? Our founding fathers were so bent on protecting our rights to property that it found itself into at least one aspect of the “pursuit of happiness.” (And Is this not an essential part of the American Dream?) Indeed John Locke, among others, upon whom the concept of happiness was based in our Constitution, believed strongly that one aspect of happiness IS the right to pursue the acquiring of property and the free use of it.
Well, here is “the rest of the story” in a nutshell…
Happiness is a huge issue. And both Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson (who drafted the Constitution) felt that, while property was an important aspect of our enjoyments, there are numerous components that secure and promote our happiness. So Jefferson down played the property rights and instead broadened the language to include more than that. In fact, Jefferson believed that happiness is not so much what we have or get but our conscience and awareness of others… what we give, not get. [see Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life,_liberty_and_the_pursuit_of_happiness]
The United States Declaration of Independence, which was primarily drafted by Jefferson, was adopted by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776. The text of the second section of the Declaration of Independence reads:
We hold these Truths to be 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.
From now on when you hear the phrase “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”, you will better understand how huge the concept of “pursuit of Happiness” is… how property is part of it… but so is our general civility and love for each other and the “right” to pursue our dreams, our happiness by a government that not only does not interfere with these rights but helps to protect and preserve them.
PS – I encourage you to read up more on this topic in Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life,_liberty_and_the_pursuit_of_happiness
