One of the most profound sentences in the Declaration of American Independence is "We are endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights, and among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."  This sentence concisely announced the arrival of the Sovereign Individual on the world political stage.

However, the inclusion of the words "the pursuit of happiness" in this grand pronouncement was quite unusual.

Why were these few words unusual?  Because the Declaration was primarily a political document.  It reflected much of the general political debate in pamphlets, letters, speeches, sermons, newspapers, and other publications that percolated in America during the decade leading up to 1776.  Very few of those public discussions and documents considered the importance of pursuing happiness.  In the common political parlance of the day, the ending to the phrase "life, liberty, and..." would have almost always been "property" not "happiness".

Being a political document, the Declaration addressed practical and theoretical civic matters.  The "pursuit of happiness" is an ethereal metaphysical precept that seems out of place in a dissertation about a revolt against the British Empire and the formation of a new nation.

So why did Jefferson insert this unusual phrase into the most important sentence of the Declaration, and why did the signatories ratify it?  The answer is the key to a full understanding of the moral and philosophical revolution the Declaration signified.  Read more at

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British soldiers would have to be quartered in homes in the States, called the quartering laws. "Hail Columbia" obvious about the wives fought for without pay by soldiers written in Washington's time. The Westminster Confession preamble or the English Bill of Rights come to mind, that Nature has made obvious God's Creation, the Rights granted to all Englishmen.