If Only Thomas Jefferson Could Settle the Issue

NY Times--front page ^ | July 3, 2014 | JENNIFER SCHUESSLER

[Pharmboy]

A Period Is Questioned in the Declaration of Independence

Every Fourth of July, some Americans sit down to read the Declaration of Independence, reacquainting themselves with the nation’s founding charter exactly as it was signed by the Second Continental Congress in 1776.

Or almost exactly? A scholar is now saying that the official transcript of the document produced by the National Archives and Records Administration contains a significant error — smack in the middle of the sentence beginning “We hold these truths to be self-evident,” no less.

The error, according to Danielle Allen, a professor at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J., concerns a period that appears right after the phrase “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” in the transcript, but almost certainly not, she maintains, on the badly faded parchment original.

That errant spot of ink, she believes, makes a difference, contributing to what she calls a “routine but serious misunderstanding” of the document.

The period creates the impression that the list of self-evident truths ends with the right to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” she says. But as intended by Thomas Jefferson, she argues, what comes next is just as important: the essential role of governments — “instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed” — in securing those rights.

“The logic of the sentence moves from the value of individual rights to the importance of government as a tool for protecting those rights,” Ms. Allen said. “You lose that connection when the period gets added.”

[GOPJ]

When the press hates something they present it as ‘confusing’ - only understandable by elites... esoteric....Sorry, I couldn't even make it to the jump...

[GOPJ]

This is the one to read for the 4th of July...

http://www.aspentimes.com/opinion/12063419-113/americans-government-business-law

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3175512/posts

Imagine a Fourth of July tradition like Hollywood’s where each year the Oscars pay homage to fallen stars. Liberty-loving Americans would fete public servants who’ve honored Thomas Jefferson’s rule to “leave no authority existing not responsible to the people.”

Might celebrating trustworthy stewards inspire Americans to Think Again about our Founders’ insights, ingraining a culture that prizes democratic accountability and lawful government, the one that transformed our risky political experiment into history’s freest and most prosperous society?
........................... MORE...
Commenting on Obama’s intentions following his 12 unanimous Supreme Court rebuke for federal-power over-reach, constitutional law professor and Obama voter Jonathan Turley explained that the president “can’t say the solution to gridlock is you simply have to resolve it on my terms.”

Having overthrown King George’s unfair and arbitrary rule, our founders established an America of, by and for the people — not ruling elites — stipulating that presidents “shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed.”

Think Again — wouldn’t a shared allegiance to our constitutional order be the best way to realize a more perfect union, for “ourselves and our posterity”?

[Verginius Rufus]

If “the pursuit of happiness” is one of the inalienable rights, how did the 18th amendment ever get added to the Constitution?

[Pharmboy]

Great post.

[Jabba the Nutt]

"“The logic of the sentence moves from the value of individual rights to the importance of government as a tool for protecting those rights,” Ms. Allen said. “You lose that connection when the period gets added.”"

This sounds like a lefty/liberal attempt to re-write history, that Jefferson really, actually wanted Big Government.

You don't lose squat with or without the period. The point is that the role of government is to secure our rights. Basta!!

And they aren't rights to force other people to pay for your "freedom", as the Marxists argue. The big mistake was that Jefferson changed the line from "right to life, liberty and property" to "pursuit of happiness". Jefferson should have left property in and added pursuit of happiness.

[Godebert]

"LOL! the only problem being that any attempt to prostitute punctuation (real or imagined) in the Declaration doesn't change what it IS- A notification that the Rights of Men are derived from the Laws of Nature....not from other men."

Correct, although most so-called Conservatives here on Freerepublic have no clue what that means.

The Law of Nations or the Principles of Natural Law (1758)

The Laws of Nature and of Nature's God: The True Foundation of American Law

[MamaTexan]

The first legal treatise written after Constitutional Ratification, speaking on the 10th Amendment:

....And because this principle was supposed not to have been expressed with sufficient precision, and certainty, an amendatory article was proposed, adopted, and ratified; whereby it is expressly declared, that, “the powers not delegated to the United States by the constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.” This article is, indeed, nothing more than an express recognition of the law of nations; for Vattel informs us, “that several sovereign, and independent states may unite themselves together by a perpetual confederacy, without each in particular ceasing to be a perfect state. They will form together a federal republic: the deliberations in common will offer no violence to the sovereignty of each member, though they may in certain respects put some constraint on the exercise of it, in virtue of voluntary engagements.
View of the Constitution of the United States George Tucker

-----

At least some of us still get it. :-)

[kiryandil]

Those who wish to be our Masters work ceaselessly to convince the peasants, including many conservatives, that their Natural Rights are "granted" to them by the Constitution.

That's one of the reasons I became a Declarationist. The creeping evil can quibble about the wording of the Constitution all day, every day - but they find it infinitely more difficult to become Declaration-deniers.

I'm surprised that this little comma tart from the NYT Palace Guard would open this line of attack on the Declaration. Researching further, we find that ANOTHER Haaavaaad termite by the name of Danielle S. Allen has been chewing on the foundations of the Declaration, and is the one who inspired tartlette Schuessler.

Naturally, The Washington Pest, which reviewed Allen's book on the Declaration, chose to get the wording of the Declaration wrong, but put it in quotes to con the unwary:

...and that people have the “inalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” — whatever that means.

Let us clarify for the Post Toasties, Obama spear-catchers extraordinaire:

While inalienable and unalienable are today used interchangeably with inalienable more common, the terms have historically sometimes been distinguished.

Regarding current usage being interchangeable:

The unalienable rights that are mentioned in the Declaration of Independence could just as well have been inalienable, which means the same thing. Inalienable or unalienable refers to that which cannot be given away or taken away. However, the Founders used the word "unalienable" as defined by William Blackstone in his Commentaries on the Laws of England, 1:93, when he defined unalienable rights as: "Those rights, then, which God and nature have established, and therefore called natural rights, such as life and liberty, need not the aid of human laws to be more effectually invested in every man than they are; neither do they receive any additional strength when declared by the municipal laws to be inviolable. On the contrary, no human legislature has power to abridge or destroy them, unless the owner shall himself commit some act that amounts to a forfeiture."...in other words a person may do something to forfeit their unalienable rights...for instance the unalienable right to freedom which can be forfeited by the commission of a crime for which they may be punished by their loss of freedom. However, once they are freed after serving their punishment their right is restored.

[Publius]

Worthy of a Federalist/Anti-Federalist ping.

[Candor7]

If Only Thomas Jefferson Could Settle the Issue>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

He would have a solution quickly, and some where in there would be a musket ball.

[GeronL]

front page??

seriously??

These leftists never stop

[ConorMacNessa]

While she's trying to parse that unambiguous Triad - Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness - out of existence, does she have anything to say about the the Litany of grievances against King George set forth in the Declaration?

And another thing - the lefties on the Supreme Court have no difficulty invoking foreign law - which has no authority in America - in their analyses and opinions.

How about invoking and being guided by the Foundation Document of our Republic and its central and most widely known tenet:

LIFE, LIBERTY, AND THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS!!!

The founders, our Fathers and our Mothers fought for it and preserved it for us.

Now it is on us to carry on!

America demands Justice for the Fallen of Benghazi!

O stranger, tell the Lacedaemonians that we lie here, obedient to their command.

Listen, O isles, unto me; and hearken, ye people, from far; The LORD hath called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name. (Isaiah 49:1 KJV)

[Political Junkie Too]

I bet that soon, the Declaration of Independence will be scrubbed from the internet due to the EU's new law giving people a "right to be forgotten," which requires Google to remove links to information about them. From the article: "It is censoring the internet, giving new tools that help the rich and powerful (and ordinary folk) hide negative information about them, and letting criminals make their histories disappear."

So, is it time for King George III to exercise his right to be forgotten? If so, the Declaration of Independence should be scrubbed, too, right?

-PJ

[dagogo redux]

Hopefully, this idiot’s 15 minutes of infamous notoriety will be confined solely to this little bit of tortured conjecture, and she’ll just quietly drift along to her richly deserved obscurity once again.

Happy 4th!

[TheOldLady]

My copy of the Declaration of Independence from the Cato Institution has an em dash in that position, not a period or a comma.

[PGalt]

Thanks for the ping, Publius. Great post, Pharmboy. Great thread BUMP!

Life Is a Gift from God

We hold from God the gift which includes all others. This gift is life — physical, intellectual, and moral life.

But life cannot maintain itself alone. The Creator of life has entrusted us with the responsibility of preserving, developing, and perfecting it. In order that we may accomplish this, He has provided us with a collection of marvelous faculties. And He has put us in the midst of a variety of natural resources. By the application of our faculties to these natural resources we convert them into products, and use them. This process is necessary in order that life may run its appointed course.

Life, faculties, production — in other words, individuality, liberty, property — this is man. And in spite of the cunning of artful political leaders, these three gifts from God precede all human legislation, and are superior to it. Life, liberty, and property do not exist because men have made laws. On the contrary, it was the fact that life, liberty, and property existed beforehand that caused men to make laws in the first place.

/Bastiat

[Eddie01]

Saw this on CBS News update this morning (wife watching some show). How absurd.

NYT author should get a Pulitzer for this. Could be invited to play golf with Obama.

[buridan]

“The logic of the sentence moves from the value of individual rights to the importance of government as a tool for protecting those rights,” Ms. Allen said. “You lose that connection when the period gets added.”

No. “Secure” should be read in opposition to “destroy” (”destructive of these rights”). What is self-evident is that government is to secure rather than destroy rights. The logic moves to both the use and misuse of government.

[Albion Wilde]

The original contains a dash, which is used throughout to finish a sentence and provide a pause. The next sentence begins with a capital letter, as new sentences usually do. Where do people get these lunatic ideas?

[Pharmboy]

They get these ideas--as you know--from many places: The Communist Manifesto, Rules for Radicals, the platform of the Democratic National Committee, etc. Anything they can do to increase the importance of the federal gummint, even rewriting the history of the Founding.

As Orwell taught us: "He who controls the past controls the future."