America’s Declaration of Natural Rights:
An Examination of the Declaration of Independence
Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources
Loyola University Chicago
Dan Wilk
What does liberty mean to you?
A Look at natural rights over time
Thomas Hobbes’s book Leviathan
(1651) is considered one of the first
works on natural rights.
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Hobbes, Thomas. Leviathan. New York, New York: Penguin Books, 1981/1651. 189.
Print.
A Look at natural rights over time
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Hobbes, Thomas. Leviathan. New York, New York: Penguin Books, 1981/1651. 189.
Print.
A Look at natural rights over time
What words
stand out to you?
What is Hobbes
saying?
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Hobbes, Thomas. Leviathan. New York, New York: Penguin Books, 1981/1651. 189.
Print.
A Look at natural rights over time
“The laws shall be merely declaratory of natural rights and
natural wrongs, and
... whatever is indifferent to the laws of nature shall be left
unnoticed by human legislation . . . and legal tyranny arises
whenever there is a departure from this simple principle.”
Elisha P. Hurlbut (1845)
“The right to enjoy liberty is inalienable. . . . Every man has a
right to his own body—to the products of his own labor—to the
protection of law. . . . That all these laws which are now in
force, admitting the right of slavery, are, therefore, before God,
utterly mill and void . . . and therefore they ought instantly to
be abrogated.” William Lloyd Garrison (1833)
Elisha P. Hurlbut, Essays on Human Rights and Their Political Guarantees (1845), cited in Wright, American Interpretations, pp. 257ff.
William Lloyd Garrison, “Declaration of Sentiments of the American Anti-Slavery Convention” (December 1833)
A Look at natural rights over time
Murray Rothbard describes natural rights as the right to private
property.
A Look at natural rights over time
“Liberals generally wish to preserve the concept of
“rights” for such “human” rights as freedom of speech,
while denying the concept to private property. And yet,
on the contrary the concept of “rights” only makes
sense as property rights. For not only are there no
human rights which are not also property rights, but the
former rights lose their absoluteness and clarity and
become fuzzy and vulnerable when property rights are
not used as the standard. In the first place, there are
two senses in which property rights are identical with
human rights: one, that property can only accrue to
humans, so that their rights to property are rights that
belong to human beings; and two, that the person’s
right to his own body, his personal liberty, is a property
right in his own person as well as a “human right.” But
more importantly for our discussion, human rights,
The Ethics of Liberty. Atlantic Highlands, N.J.: Humanities Press Inc., 1982. 113. Print.
when notRothbard,
put inMurray.
terms
of property rights, turn out to be
A Look at natural rights over time
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A Look at natural rights over time
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Jefferson and Locke
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Jefferson and Locke
“Bacon, Locke, Newton…I
consider them as the three
greatest men that have ever
lived, without any exception,
and as having laid the
foundation of those
superstructures which have
been raised in the Physical
and Moral sciences“
Thomas Jefferson to
Richard Price Paris, January
8, 1789
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All men are Created equal
ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL
A state also of equality, where all the Power and Justification is
reciprocal no one having more then another, there being nothing more
evident. This equality of Men by Nature. Judicious Hooker Looks upon
as so evident in it self, and beyond all question.
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ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL
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ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL
ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL
Common Ideas
We hold these truths to be
self-evident
so evident in it self, and
beyond all question.
All men are created equal
A state also of equality, where
all the Power and Justification
is reciprocal no one having
more then another
ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL
What does this mean?
divine rights of kings
ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL
He [George III] has waged cruel war against human nature itself,
violating its most scared rights of life and liberty in the persons of a
distant people who never offended him, captivating and carrying them
into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur a miserable death in their
transportation thither. Determined to keep open a market where men
should be bought and sold, he has prostituted his negative for
suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or to restrain this
execrable commerce.
ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL
Ellen Randolph Coolidge
to Thomas Jefferson
August 1, 1825
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ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL
(Discussing her trip to New England)...
“It has given me an idea of prosperity and
improvement, such as I fear our Southern
State cannot hope for, whilst the canker
of slavery eats into our hearts, and
diseases the whole body by this ulcer at
the core."
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ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL
“I have no doubt you will find also the state of society there more
congenial with your mind, than the rustic scenes you have left:
altho these do not want their points of endearment. nay, one
single circumstance changed, and their scale would hardly be
the lightest. one fatal stain deforms what nature had bestowed
on us of her fairest gifts.”
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Daguerreotype, ca. 1840, University of Virginia Library.
All men are Created equal
Thomas Jefferson to John
Holmes, April 22, 1820
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All men are Created equal
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All
men
are
Created
In 1791, patrick henry
writes
in his
book
the “rights of man”, "I begin with charters
and corporations. it is a perversion of
terms to say that a charter gives rights. it
operates by a contrary effect, that of
taking rights away. rights are inherently in
all the inhabitants; but charters, by
annulling those right in the majority, leave
the right by exclusion in the hands of a
few. if charters were constructed so as
to express in direct terms 'that every
inhabitant, who is not a member of a
corporation, shall not exercise the right of
voting,' such charters would, in the face,
be charter, not of the rights, but of
exclusion." With the declaration of
independence stating that rights are
inherent and inalienable deriving from
God, do you feel that convicted felons
deserve the same rights as his fellow
equal
All
men
are
Created
In 1791, Patrick Henry
writes
in his
book
the “Rights of Man”, "I begin with
charters and corporations. it is a
perversion of terms to say that a charter
gives rights. it operates by a contrary
effect, that of taking rights away. rights
are inherently in all the inhabitants; but
charters, by annulling those right in the
majority, leave the right by exclusion in
the hands of a few. if charters were
constructed so as to express in direct
terms 'that every inhabitant, who is not a
member of a corporation, shall not
exercise the right of voting,' such
charters would, in the face, be charter,
not of the rights, but of exclusion." With
the Declaration of Independence stating
that rights are inherent and inalienable
deriving from God, do you feel that
convicted felons deserve the same rights
equal
Consent of the Governed
CONSENT OF THE GOVERNED
And thus much may suffice to shew, that as far as we have any
light from History, we have reason to conclude, that all
peaceful beginnings of Government have been laid in the
Consent of the People.
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CONSENT OF THE GOVERNED
CONSENT OF THE GOVERNED
Yet the legislative being only a fiduciary power to act for certain ends,
there remains still in the people a supreme power to remove or alter the
legislative act contrary to the trust reposed in them; for all power given
with trust for the attaining an end being limited by that end, whenever
that end is manifestly neglected or opposed, the trust must necessarily
be forfeited, and the power devolve into the hands of those that gave it,
who may place it anew where they shall think best for their safety and
security.
CONSENT OF THE GOVERNED
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CONSENT OF THE GOVERNED
Consent of the Governed
Common Ideas
“Governments are instituted among
men, deriving their just powers from the
consent of the governed.”
“we have reason to conclude, that all
peaceful beginnings of Government
have been laid in the Consent of the
People.”
Consent of the Governed
Common Ideas
“it is the right of the people to alter or
abolish it, & institute a new government,
laying it’s foundation on such principles,
& organizing it’s power in such form, as
to them shall seem most likely to effect
their safety & happiness”
“remains still in the people a supreme
power to remove or alter the legislative
act....
and the power devolve into the hands of
those that gave it, who may place it anew
where they shall think best for their safety
and security.”
Consent of the Governed
The Declaration of Independence support the secession of
the Confederate States of America. Do you feel the
Confederate States of America were exercising natural
rights or natural wrongs? Support your answer.
Do you feeling voting in the United States appoints the
government power through the consent of the governed? Why
or Why not?
TRAIN OF ABUSES
TRAIN OF ABUSES
But if a long train of Abuses, Prevarications and Artifices, all tending
the same way, making design visible to the People, and they cannot
but feel what they lye under, and see whither they are going; ‘tis not to
be wonder’d that they should then rouze themselves, and endeavor to
put the rule into such hands, which may secure to them the ends for
which Government was at first erected.
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TRAIN OF ABUSES
TRAIN OF ABUSES
It may be demanded here. What if the executive power, being
possessed of the force of the commonwealth, shall make use of that
force to hinder the meeting and acting of the legislative, when the original
constitution or public exigencies require it? I say using force upon the
people without authority, and contrary to the trust put in him that does so,
is a state of war with the people, who have a right to reinstate their
legislative in the exercise of their power. For having erected a legislative,
with an intent they should exercise the power of making laws, either at
certain set times, or when there is need of it. When they are hindered by
any force from what is so necessary to the society, and wherein the
safety and preservation of the people consists, the people have the right
to remove it by force.
TRAIN OF ABUSES
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TRAIN OF ABUSES
TRAIN OF ABUSES
Common Ideas
But if a long train of Abuses,
Prevarications and Artifices, all
tending the same way, making design
visible to the People, and they cannot
but feel what they lye under,
When a long train of abuses &
usurpations begun at a distinguished
period, pursuing invariably the same
object, evinces a design to reduce them
under absolute Despotism...
TRAIN OF ABUSES
I say using
force uponIdeas
the people
Common
without authority, and contrary to
the trust put in him that does so, is
a state of war with the people, who
have a right to reinstate their
legislative in the exercise of their
power.... When they are hindered
by any force from what is so
necessary to the society, and
wherein the safety and
preservation of the people consists,
the people have the right to remove
it by
force.
it is their duty, to
throw
off such government &
provide new guards for their future security such
has been patient sufferance of these colonies; &
such is now the necessity which constrains them to
alter their former systems of government
TRAIN OF ABUSES
Thomas Jefferson to William S.
Smith, November 13, 1787
TRAIN OF ABUSES
Thomas Jefferson to William S.
Smith, November 13, 1787
TRAIN OF ABUSES
TRAIN OF ABUSES
LIFE, LIBERTY, AND THE PURSUIT OF
HAPPINESS
LIFE, LIBERTY, AND THE PURSUIT OF
HAPPINESS
...what tends to the preservation of the
life, the liberty, health limb or goods of
another
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LIFE, LIBERTY, AND THE PURSUIT OF
HAPPINESS
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LIFE, LIBERTY, AND THE PURSUIT OF
HAPPINESS
LIFE, LIBERTY, AND THE PURSUIT OF
HAPPINESS
Common Ideas
that among these
are life, liberty, &
the pursuit of
happiness
...what tends to the
preservation of the life,
the liberty, health limb or
goods of another
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LIFE, LIBERTY, AND THE PURSUIT OF
HAPPINESS
One of the first drafts stated “among these are life, liberty,
and property.” Franklin, one of the Declaration of
Independence draftees removed property. What do you
think his reason was?
Do you feel that the phrase “pursuit of happiness” depicts
Thomas Hobbes description of Jus Naturale? Why or why
not?
REFLECTION
What do you see that you didn’t expect?
What powerful words and ideas are expressed?
What feelings and thoughts does the presentation trigger in
you?
REFLECTION
Keeping your students in mind, create one question or one
activity using what you learned today to stimulate critical
thinking in your students. Be prepared to share your ideas
with the group.