Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.html

This article is about a famous phrase. For other uses, see The Pursuit of Happiness.

"Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness " is one of the most famous phrases in the United States Declaration of Independence. These three aspects are listed among the "inalienable rights" of man.

Phrasing

The phrase is based on the writings of John Locke, who expressed a similar concept of "life, liberty, and estate (property)". Locke said that "no one ought to harm another in his life, liberty, or possessions."¹ George Mason, in the Virginia Declaration of Rights rephrased it as: "That all men are by nature equally free and independent and have certain inherent rights, ... namely the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety." The fact that this document was approved in Virginia just days before the Second Continental Congress met indicates that Jefferson was very much influenced by it.

Written by Thomas Jefferson, the words rephrase his friend Mason's words more concisely. The term "liberty" covers a broad spectrum of rights, possibly including the guarantees of the Bill of Rights such as free speech and a fair trial. Jefferson's formulation omits mentioning property rights; Jefferson apparently considered property rights to be included in "pursuit of happiness." Jefferson never elaborated on the phrase in his writings, so interpretation is subject to speculation.

This tripartite motto is comparable to "liberté, égalité, fraternité" (liberty, equality, fraternity) in France or the more socialist idealism expressed by "peace, order and good government" in Canada.²

The phrase can also be found in Chapter III, Article 13 of the 1947 Constitution of Japan, and in President Ho Chi-minh's 1945 declaration of independence of the Republic of Vietnam. An alternative phrase "life, liberty and property", is found in the Declaration of Colonial Rights, a resolution of the First Continental Congress. Article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights reads, "Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person."

Pursuit of happiness

The phrase "pursuit of happiness" appeared in the 1967 Supreme Court case, Loving v. Virginia, 388 U.S. 1 (1967), which focused on an anti-miscegenation statute. Chief Justice Warren wrote:

The freedom to marry has long been recognized as one of the vital personal rights essential to the orderly pursuit of happiness by free men.

The phrase is used in the depression-era case Meyer v. Nebraska, 262 U.S. 390 (1923), which is seen as the seminal case interpreting the "liberty" interest of the Due Process clause of the 14th amendment as guaranteeing, among other things, a right to the pursuit of happiness, and, consequently, a right to privacy.

However, earlier judicial opinion, in Butchers' Union Co. v. Crescent City Co., 111 U.S. 746 (1884), considered Jefferson's phrase to refer to one's economic vocation of choice rather than the more ephemeral search for emotional fulfillment, although one may be predicated on the other. U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Stephen Johnson Field, in his concurring opinion³ to Associate Justice Samuel Freeman Miller's opinion, wrote:

Among these inalienable rights, as proclaimed in that great document, is the right of men to pursue their happiness, by which is meant the right to pursue any lawful business or vocation, in any manner not inconsistent with the equal rights of others, which may increase their prosperity or develop their faculties, so as to give to them their highest enjoyment.

References

^ Locke, John, and Peter Laslett. Two Treatises of Government. Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought. Cambridge [England]; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1988
^ Dyck, Rand. Canadian Politics: Critical Approaches. Third ed. Scarborough, Ontario: Nelson Thomson Learning, 2000.
^ http://nesara.org/court_summaries/butchers_union_co_v_crescent_city_co..htm, The National Economic Stabilization and Recovery Act (NESARA). The NESARA Institute, Greenwell Springs, LA

Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness: Documents in American History. P. Scott Corbett and Ronald Naugle (ISBN 0-07-283999-6)
Patriots (1988) by A.J. Langguth