Each time we gather to inaugurate a President we bear witness to the enduring strength of our Constitution. We affirm the promise of our democracy. We recall that what binds this nation together is not the colors of our skin or the tenets of our faith or the origins of our names. What makes us exceptional -- what makes us American -- is our allegiance to an idea articulated in a declaration made more than two centuries ago:
“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.” Today we continue a never-ending journey to bridge the meaning of those words with the realities of our time. For history tells us that while these truths may be self-evident, they’ve never been self-executing; that while freedom is a gift from God, it must be secured by His people here on Earth. (Applause.) The patriots of 1776 did not fight to replace the tyranny of a king with the privileges of a few or the rule of a mob. They gave to us a republic, a government of, and by, and for the people, entrusting each generation to keep safe our founding creed. And for more than two hundred years, we have. Through blood drawn by lash and blood drawn by sword, we learned that no union founded on the principles of liberty and equality could survive half-slave and half-free. We made ourselves anew, and vowed to move forward together.
The first line of the Declaration 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.” Considering the previous events of the American rebellion against the British ,
“We hold these truths to be sacred & undeniable; that all mean are created equal....” One of Thomas Jefferson's examples of
a. Jefferson states that the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are unalienable.
The Declaration of independence even states that all men have "unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness… ". Take that how you want, but I think Thomas Jefferson was trying to tell us something.
Americans have continued to work hard every day to ensure we keep the freedoms we have fought so hard for. Fifteen states from the early America, that’s 56 signatures from many important people during that time, all agreed that we were born with “unalienable rights,” rights that no one could ever take away or deny. “All men are created equal,” they all have the same rights and power any other person has, and that’s because of the Declaration of Independence. Because of the rights the Declaration of Independence has given us, it is by far the most compelling to American citizens today because it continues to ensure that we are granted the rights of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Due to this we also hold the power to abolish any form of government that wishes to remove these rights, for when we know what freedom tastes like we will do anything to ensure we keep that freedom.
One of the most important parts of the Declaration of Independence is its preamble, and, more specifically, certain phrases contained within the preamble. Thomas Jefferson does an excellent job of explaining why the colonies are doing the things they are doing, and is very clear in stating what he and his associates think are the “unalienable rights” of the American people. Among these are “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” Probably one of the most famous lines in American history, I have chosen to focus on this phrase and what those three things might have meant to Thomas Jefferson and the other Founding Fathers as they prepared this document, as well as what they mean to us today.
“We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” - The Declaration of Independence
CM: The striking similarity to Jefferson’s claim to “certain unalienable Rights... [of] Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness” is blatantly obvious; the parallels in these two pieces that guarantee these irrevocable rights are almost word for
We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men and women are created equal; that they are endowed certain unalienable rights; that among these rights are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. These rights are ensured by the humanity of the people around us, and judgement threatens these purest of rights. We must, as people, humans,
“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.”
One of the most famous quote people remember from the Declaration of Independence was, “ We hold these truths to be self- evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.’ Adams persuaded the committee to select Thomas Jefferson to compose the original draft of the document, which Congress then would edit to create the final version. The Declaration was an explanation of why Congress had voted on July 2 to declare
“Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” is a phrase nearly every American knows as being the three unalienable rights that cannot be revoked by the government. These self-evident truths first appeared in the Declaration of Independence, a document written to rid the United States from its torrid oppressors. Liberty, however, is the most important of the three, seeing as if American did not have it, residents would simply be slaves to their government and could not be truly free-thinking citizens.
On July 4, 1776, an independent and fervent nation was born. Our Founding Fathers used an overwhelming sense of integrity and determination to fabricate the Declaration of Independence - a historical document that pleads King George III for independence and stresses the importance of freedom, equality, and natural rights. Though the Declaration of Independence signifies the birth of America and represents a powerful landmark in our history, when looked at from a broad spectrum, it can be seen as arrogant, ironic, and controversial. The Declaration states, “ … 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” (“The declaration”,
“We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal, that they endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.” (Jefferson 1776). That small passage was written by Thomas Jefferson in The Declaration of Independence. What he said is what I believe as my rights as a citizen and the government that best protects those rights is the one we practice here in America.
“The virtue which had been infused into the Constitution of the United States was no other than … those abstract principles which had been first proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence—namely, the self-evident truths of the natural and unalienable rights of man … This was the platform upon which the Constitution of the United States had been erected.”