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| Inalienable Rights |
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The government of the United
States is the result of a revolution in thought. It was founded on the principle that all
persons have equal rights, and that government is responsible to, and derives its powers
from, a free people. To Jefferson and the other Founding Fathers, these ideas were not
just a passing intellectual fad, but a recognition of something inherent in the nature of
man itself. The very foundation of government, therefore, rests on the inalienable rights
of the people and of each individual composing their mass. The Declaration of
Independence, written by Thomas Jefferson, is the fundamental statement of what government
is and from what source it derives its powers. It begins with a summary of those
inalienable rights that are the self-evident basis for a free society and for all the
powers to protect those rights that a just government exercises.
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"We hold these truths to be
self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with
inherent and inalienable rights; that among these, are life, liberty, and the pursuit of
happiness; that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving
their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government
becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it,
and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing
its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and
happiness." --Declaration of Independence as originally written by Thomas Jefferson,
1776. ME 1:29, Papers 1:315
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"[Our] principles [are]
founded on the immovable basis of equal right and reason." --Thomas Jefferson to
James Sullivan, 1797. ME 9:379
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"An equal application of law
to every condition of man is fundamental." --Thomas Jefferson to George Hay, 1807. ME
11:341
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"The most sacred of the
duties of a government [is] to do equal and impartial justice to all its citizens."
--Thomas Jefferson: Note in Destutt de Tracy, "Political Economy," 1816. ME
14:465
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"To unequal privileges among
members of the same society the spirit of our nation is, with one accord, adverse."
--Thomas Jefferson to Hugh White, 1801. ME 10:258
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"In America, no other
distinction between man and man had ever been known but that of persons in office
exercising powers by authority of the laws, and private individuals. Among these last, the
poorest laborer stood on equal ground with the wealthiest millionaire, and generally on a
more favored one whenever their rights seem to jar." --Thomas Jefferson: Answers to
de Meusnier Questions, 1786. ME 17:8
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"Of distinction by birth or
badge, [Americans] had no more idea than they had of the mode of existence in the moon or
planets. They had heard only that there were such, and knew that they must be wrong."
--Thomas Jefferson: Answers to de Meusnier Questions, 1786. ME 17:89
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"[The] best principles [of
our republic] secure to all its citizens a perfect equality of rights." --Thomas
Jefferson: Reply to the Citizens of Wilmington, 1809. ME 16:336
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The Nature and Source of Our
Rights
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"The principles on which we
engaged, of which the charter of our independence is the record, were sanctioned by the
laws of our being, and we but obeyed them in pursuing undeviatingly the course they called
for. It issued finally in that inestimable state of freedom which alone can ensure to man
the enjoyment of his equal rights." --Thomas Jefferson to Georgetown Republicans,
1809. ME 16:349
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"Man [is] a rational animal,
endowed by nature with rights and with an innate sense of justice." --Thomas
Jefferson to William Johnson, 1823. ME 15:441
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"A free people [claim] their
rights as derived from the laws of nature, and not as the gift of their chief
magistrate." --Thomas Jefferson: Rights of British America, 1774. ME 1:209, Papers
1:134
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"Under the law of nature,
all men are born free, every one comes into the world with a right to his own person,
which includes the liberty of moving and using it at his own will. This is what is called
personal liberty, and is given him by the Author of nature, because necessary for his own
sustenance." --Thomas Jefferson: Legal Argument, 1770. FE 1:376
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"What is true of every
member of the society, individually, is true of them all collectively; since the rights of
the whole can be no more than the sum of the rights of the individuals." --Thomas
Jefferson to James Madison, 1789. ME 7:455, Papers 15:393
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"Nothing... is unchangeable
but the inherent and unalienable rights of man." --Thomas Jefferson to John
Cartwright, 1824. ME 16:48
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"The evidence of [the]
natural right [of expatriation], like that of our right to life, liberty, the use of our
faculties, the pursuit of happiness, is not left to the feeble and sophistical
investigations of reason, but is impressed on the sense of every man. We do not claim
these under the charters of kings or legislators, but under the King of Kings."
--Thomas Jefferson to John Manners, 1817. ME 15:124
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"Natural rights [are] the
objects for the protection of which society is formed and municipal laws
established." --Thomas Jefferson to James Monroe, 1797. ME 9:422
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"Can the liberties of a
nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the
minds of the people that these liberties are of the gift of God? That they are not to be
violated but with His wrath?" --Thomas Jefferson: Notes on Virginia Q.XVIII, 1782. ME
2:227
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"Questions of natural right
are triable by their conformity with the moral sense and reason of man." --Thomas
Jefferson: Opinion on French Treaties, 1793. ME 3:235
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"It is a principle that the
right to a thing gives a right to the means without which it could not be used, that is to
say, that the means follow their end." --Thomas Jefferson: --Thomas Jefferson: Report
on Navigation of the Mississippi, 1792. ME 3:180
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"The right to use a thing
comprehends a right to the means necessary to its use, and without which it would be
useless." --Thomas Jefferson to William Carmichael, 1790. ME 8:72
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"The Declaration of
Independence... [is the] declaratory charter of our rights, and of the rights of
man." --Thomas Jefferson to Samuel Adams Wells, 1819. ME 15:200
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"Some other natural
rights... [have] not yet entered into any declaration of rights." --Thomas Jefferson
to John W. Eppes, 1813. ME 13:272
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"I shall see with sincere
satisfaction the progress of those sentiments which tend to restore to man all his natural
rights, convinced he has no natural right in opposition to his social duties."
--Thomas Jefferson: Reply to Danbury Baptists, 1802. ME 16:282
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| The Right to Life and Liberty |
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"The God who gave us life
gave us liberty at the same time; the hand of force may destroy, but cannot disjoin
them." --Thomas Jefferson: Rights of British America, 1774. ME 1:211, Papers 1:135
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"Of liberty I would say
that, in the whole plenitude of its extent, it is unobstructed action according to our
will. But rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits
drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add 'within the limits of the
law,' because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the right
of an individual." --Thomas Jefferson to Isaac H. Tiffany, 1819.
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"That liberty [is pure]
which is to go to all, and not to the few or the rich alone." --Thomas Jefferson to
Horatio Gates, 1798. ME 9:441
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"In a government bottomed on
the will of all, the life and liberty of every individual citizen becomes interesting to
all." --Thomas Jefferson: 5th Annual Message, 1805. ME 3:390
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"I would rather be exposed
to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a
degree of it." --Thomas Jefferson to Archibald Stuart, 1791. ME 8:276
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"Being myself a warm zealot
for the attainment and enjoyment by all mankind of as much liberty as each may exercise
without injury to the equal liberty of his fellow citizens, I have lamented that... the
endeavors to obtain this should have been attended with the effusion of so much
blood." --Thomas Jefferson to Jean Nicholas Demeunier, 1795. FE 7:13
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| The Pursuit of Happiness |
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"The Giver of life gave it
for happiness and not for wretchedness." --Thomas Jefferson to James Monroe, 1782. ME
4:196, Papers 6:186
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"If [God] has made it a law
in the nature of man to pursue his own happiness, He has left him free in the choice of
place as well as mode, and we may safely call on the whole body of English jurists to
produce the map on which nature has traced for each individual the geographical line which
she forbids him to cross in pursuit of happiness." --Thomas Jefferson to John
Manners, 1817. ME 15:124
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"Perfect happiness, I
believe, was never intended by the Deity to be the lot of one of his creatures in this
world; but that he has very much put in our power the nearness of our approaches to it, is
what I as steadfastly believe." --Thomas Jefferson to John Page, 1763. ME 4:10,
Papers 1:10
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"The freedom and happiness
of man... [are] the sole objects of all legitimate government." --Thomas Jefferson to
Thaddeus Kosciusko, 1810. ME 12:369
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"[It is a] great truth that
industry, commerce and security are the surest roads to the happiness and prosperity of
[a] people." --Thomas Jefferson to Francisco Chiappe, 1789. Papers 15:405
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"The only orthodox object of
the institution of government is to secure the greatest degree of happiness possible to
the general mass of those associated under it." --Thomas Jefferson to M. van der
Kemp, 1812. ME 13:135
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"I sincerely pray that all
the members of the human family may, in the time prescribed by the Father of us all, find
themselves securely established in the enjoyment of life, liberty, and happiness."
--Thomas Jefferson: Reply to Ellicot Thomas, et al., 1807. ME 16:290
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ME, FE = Memorial Edition, Ford Edition.
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