[unspun]

You disagree that rights, and the determination of the Abolitionists and freesoilers not to respect them, were not the crux of the War Between the States?

I am saying that it is a Universal Right in a free nation, that innocent people have Rights to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. This supercedes whatever otherwise complex and well-supported edifice of competing rights may be built --below, upon, and above the 10th Amendment, etc.

Pretty basic stuff, basic rights. And the United States Constitution was built squarely upon the UNQUESTIONED FACT of that our Declaration of Independence, provided its own basis.

You are free to call that "Declarationism." It is historical, ontological fact.

[lentulusgracchus]

I am saying that it is a Universal Right in a free nation, that innocent people have Rights to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. This supercedes whatever otherwise complex and well-supported edifice of competing rights may be built --below, upon, and above the 10th Amendment, etc.

I'm sorry, but this is just flatheadedly wrong. Read a book on the Constitution, okay?

You are free to call that "Declarationism." It is historical, ontological fact.

It is Straussian, Lincolnian buncombe and far from fact, much less ontological fact.