Posts Tagged ‘Founding Fathers’

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The substantive nature of those rights which are inherent in all mankind was described by William Blackstone in his Commentaries on the Laws of England:

Those rights, then, which God and nature have established, and are therefore called natural rights, such as are life and liberty, need not the aid of human laws to be more effectually invested in every man than they are; neither do they receive any additional strength when declared by the municipal laws to be inviolable. On the contrary, no human legislature has the power to abridge or destroy them, unless the owner shall himself commit some act that amounts to a forfeiture. (Commentaries, 1:93.)

The Founders Did Not List All of the Unalienable Rights

When the Founders adopted the Declaration of Independence, they emphasized in phrases very similar to those of Blackstone that God has endowed all mankind “with certain unalienable rights, that AMONG these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

Let us identify some of the unalienable or natural rights which the Founders knew existed but did not enumerate in the Declaration of Independence:

• The right of self-government.
• The right to bear arms for self-defense.
• The right to own, develop, and dispose of property.
• The right to make personal choices.
• The right of free conscience.
• The right to choose a profession.
• The right to choose a mate.
• The right to beget one’s kind.
• The right to assemble.
• The right to petition.
• The right to free speech.
• The right to a free press.
• The right to enjoy the fruit of one’s labors.
• The right to improve one’s position through barter and sale.
• The right to contrive and invent.
• The right to explore the natural resources of the earth.
• The right to privacy.
• The right to provide personal security.
• The right to provide nature’s necessities—air, food, water, clothing, and shelter.
• The right to a fair trial.
• The right of free association.
• The right to contract.

Many Founders Used Similar Language Emphasizing “Unalienable Rights”

It was very common among the Founders to express their sentiments concerning man’s unalienable rights in almost the same language as Jefferson. Here are the words of the Virginia Declaration of Rights adopted by the Virginia Assembly June 12, 1776 (before the Declaration of Independence!):

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. (Annals of America, 2:432.)

The above is excerpted from The 5,000 Year Leap, by W. Cleon Skousen, pp. 124–126.

If you love liberty, you must be familiar with these quotes. They are just as relevant today, as they were when our founding fathers lived to say these great words.