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Posted on 06/28/2026 5:57:25 AM PDT by Twotone
From Roman freedom to Viking happiness, the iconic words in the Declaration of Independence reveal thousands of years of humans wrestling with how to live well together – and the power of language to put those ideas into action.
"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."
When Thomas Jefferson drafted these words in the Declaration of Independence, two things were on his mind. One: he needed to find "terms so plain and firm as to command their assent" by the colonies, as he later explained, and justify independence from Great Britain. Two: beyond the practical purpose, he wanted the text to be "an expression of the American mind, and to give to that expression the proper tone and spirit called for by the occasion".
250 years ago, Congress approved the Declaration on 4 July 1776. But the meaning of those seemingly simple terms – "created equal", right to "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness" – continue to provoke debate.
"These phrases seem always to be running automatically in the American background, rather like software," says Michael Ditmore, professor of English at Pepperdine University in Malibu, US, and the author of Texting the Nation: Agencies and Actions in the Declaration of Independence. "Still, considered purely in their textual wording, we hardly agree on what they mean or obligate us to," he adds.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
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“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all liberals are historically illiterate morons...”
I thought it was from the Italian:
“The prosciutto of happiness”
Well said.
From Subject to Citizen: What Americans Need to Know about Their Revolution by Nancy Bradeen Spannaus
"From Subject to Citizen is a challenge to Americans to understand the deeper causes and nature of the American Revolution. Public historian Nancy Spannaus addresses the matter in three sections: The Growing Revolt against the British Empire, the Declaration, and the Fight for the Constitution. Each comprises challenges to certain popular understandings of these events by republishing articles from her blog, "American System Now", both short and long. In her conclusion she draws on the insights of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass to identify the essential qualities a citizen needs to preserve our republic."
👍
Prosciutto and mozzarella (”mutz”) make This Guy happy.
Professor Ditmore sounds like most professors: self-centered and clueless. I wonder just what “texting” has to do with history (or English, for that matter).
Yet another academic imbecile trie to hawk a brain fart as something of value.
Next! ....
Thanks for the recommendation! I’ll check it out
Only an academic could find any wiggle room in Jefferson’s declaration. This argument falls further apart when one realizes Jefferson originally wrote “…pursuit of property” but let the committee change it to happiness.
Liberals wish to strip those away from all of us.
Per Wiki”
Jefferson’s “original Rough draught” is on exhibit in the Library of Congress. This version was used by Julian Boyd to create a transcript of Jefferson’s draft, which reads:
“We hold these truths to be sacred & undeniable; that all men are created equal & independent, that from that equal creation they derive rights inherent & inalienable, among which are the preservation of life, & liberty, & the pursuit of happiness; ...”
The Committee of Five edited Jefferson’s draft. Their version survived further edits by the whole Congress intact, and 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. ——”
A number of possible sources of inspiration for Jefferson’s use of the phrase in the Declaration of Independence have been identified, although scholars debate the extent to which any one of them actually influenced Jefferson. The greatest disagreement comes between those who suggest the phrase was drawn from John Locke and those who more strongly attribute to Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
In 1689, John Locke argued in Two Treatises of Government that political society existed for the sake of protecting “property”, which he defined as a person’s “life, liberty, and estate”.
In A Letter Concerning Toleration, he wrote that the magistrate’s power was limited to preserving a person’s “civil interest”, which he described as “life, liberty, health, and indolency of body; and the possession of outward things”. He declared in his Essay Concerning Human Understanding that “the highest perfection of intellectual nature lies in a careful and constant pursuit of true and solid happiness”. According to those scholars who saw the root of Jefferson’s thought in Locke’s doctrine, Jefferson replaced “estate” with “the pursuit of happiness”, although this does not mean that Jefferson meant the “pursuit of happiness” to refer primarily or exclusively to property.
Under such an assumption, the Declaration of Independence would declare that government existed primarily for the reasons Locke gave, and some have extended that line of thinking to support a conception of limited government.
The Boston Pamphlet (1772), the Declaration and Resolves of the First Continental Congress (1774), and the Virginia Declaration of Rights (1776) also declare the right to life, liberty and property.
In 1628, Sir Edward Coke wrote in The First Part of the Institutes of the Lawes of England, his commentary on Thomas de Littleton, that “It is commonly said that three things be favoured in Law, Life, Liberty, Dower.” At common law, dower was closely guarded as a means by which the widow and orphan of a deceased landowner could keep their real property.
Jefferson’s phrase may be specifically based on his Epicureanism. In his Letter to William Short, Jefferson said: “As you say of yourself, I too am an Epicurean. I consider the genuine (not the imputed) doctrines of Epicurus as containing every thing rational in moral philosophy which Greece and Rome have left us.” The 29th of Epicurus’ 40 Principal Doctrines (on the hierarchy of desires) states that desires may be natural and necessary, natural and unnecessary, or neither natural nor necessary.
Jefferson may have been enshrining a version of the “natural and necessary” category of desires into the social contract of his new country. In his Letter to Menoeceus, Epicurus of Samos stated “that among the necessary desires some are necessary for happiness, some for physical health, and some for life itself”. Although the Declaration of Independence does not mention health, this may be included under “life”, and liberty and autarchy are cardinal values of Epicurean philosophy.
Garry Wills has argued that Jefferson did not take the phrase from Locke and that it was indeed meant to be a standard by which governments should be judged. Wills suggests Adam Ferguson as a good guide to what Jefferson had in mind.
Looks good!
Yep! Without reading his work, I would imagine that it’s his point-of-entry for trashing the Declaration, the Constitution, and every other non-Marxian screed as “white European privilege” propaganda.
I hope that I am not jumping to conclusions here, but IF that is indeed his message, then damn him.
They are EVIL.
English is closer to Norse than German.
” Michael Ditmore, professor of English at Pepperdine University in Malibu, US, ...”
Another ditz academic out of California
Actually virtue as a goal is mentioned...but the article seems to be one of questioning the Declaration instead of adopting it.
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