Life, Liberty and 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 "unalienable rights" of man.
Phrasing
The phrase is based on the writings of John Locke, who expressed a similar concept of "life, liberty, and estate (or property)". While Locke said that "no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions", Adam Smith coined the phrase "life, liberty, and the pursuit of property". The expression "pursuit of happiness" was coined by Dr. Samuel Johnson in his 1759 novel Rasselas.
Written by Thomas Jefferson, the words in the Declaration were a departure from the orthodoxy of Locke and Smith. Locke's phrase was a list of property rights a government should guarantee its people; Jefferson's list, on the other hand, covers a much broader spectrum of rights, possibly including the guarantees of the Bill of Rights such as free speech and a fair trial. The change was not explained during Jefferson's life, so beyond this, one can only speculate about its meaning.
This tripartite motto is comparable to "liberté, égalité, fraternité" (liberty, equality, fraternity) in France or "peace, order and good government" in Canada.[1]
The phrase can also be found in Chapter III, Article 13 of the 1947 Constitution of Japan.
An alternative phrase "life, liberty and property", is found in the Declaration of Colonial Rights, a resolution of the First Continental Congress.
Pursuit of happiness
The phrase "pursuit of happiness" appeared in the Supreme Court case, Loving v. Virginia, which focused on an anti-miscegenation statute. 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.
It is worth noting that the declaration does not suggest a right to happiness itself; merely a right to pursue happiness. Thus, nobody can claim their rights are being violated simply because they are unhappy.
Additionally, the phrase is used in the depression-era case Meyer v. Nebraska, 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.
References
- ^ Dyck, Rand. Canadian Politics: Critical Approaches. Third ed. Scarborough, Ontario: Nelson Thomson Learning, 2000.
- Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness: Documents in American History. P. Scott Corbett and Ronald Naugle (ISBN 0-07-283999-6)
- Independence 1776. A. J. Langguth.