[xzins]

The Preamble speaks of a "more perfect Union" and this is a direct reference to the "perpetual Union" referenced in the Articles of Confederation, the Fathers wanted a more perfect AND perpetual Union(this is also the main argument against the thirteen states that signed the Articles being allowed to secede from the Union), not something that would terminate. The Founding Fathers risked so much personally, it is unthinkable that they wouldn't have envisioned the Republic lasting in perpetuity.

Excellent, fact-based argument.

Did the Founders envision "posterity" endowed with rights prior to their birth?

They established language that would "secure" those rights for that posterity, so my argument would be that they saw that posterity ALREADY endowed with rights, and that prior to their birth.

[wagglebee]

Did the Founders envision "posterity" endowed with rights prior to their birth?

ALL of the Founding Fathers (even Jefferson and Franklin) believed in Creation as described in Genesis, there is NOTHING to suggest otherwise (keep in mind that the term "Creator" in the Declaration was actually Jefferson's idea).

Furthermore, they understood that rights came from God and now government.

The only logical reference they would have had to WHEN each individual was endowed with these rights would have been Jeremiah 1:5:

Before I formed thee in the bowels of thy mother, I knew thee: and before thou camest forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee, and made thee a prophet unto the nations.