Jefferson's pursuit of happiness

[regent]

Why did Jefferson change "property " to the pursuit of happiness in the Declaration?

 

[konradv]

Why did Jefferson change "property " to the pursuit of happiness in the Declaration?

He had problem with the way property was divided, so probably didn't consider that the proper word to use.

But the consequences of this enormous inequality producing so much misery to the bulk of mankind, legislators cannot invent too many devices for subdividing property, only taking care to let their subdivisions go hand in hand with the natural affections of the human mind. The descent of property of every kind therefore to all the children, or to all the brothers and sisters, or other relations in equal degree is a politic measure, and a practicable one. Another means of silently lessening the inequality of property is to exempt all from taxation below a certain point, and to tax the higher portions of property in geometrical progression as they rise.

Equality Thomas Jefferson to James Madison

 

[Picaro]

Why did Jefferson change "property " to the pursuit of happiness in the Declaration?

Because it had a nicer ring to it for propaganda purposes; more inspiring for the proles the aristocrats needed to attract to The Cause in order fill out the Army. It wasn't all that popular a Cause at the time, and since less than a thousand men controlled the economic and political power in the Colonies it was very obvious at the time whose 'pursuit of property' they would be fighting and dying for. It also pleased the leadership by lowering the expectations of those grubby proles and wouldn't lead to any uppity ideas on their parts later on, after they won the war.

Jefferson was chosen to write this stuff because he was considered a good writer, not because he actually believed much of what he wrote. That's the case with most of the propaganda of that era. Paine believed in a lot of what he wrote, but as we know both Paine and Otis were tossed under the bus almost immediately after the war was over, Paine pointedly ignored and Otis deported after they were no longer 'useful'.

 

[jwoodie]

Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about a famous phrase. For other uses, see The Pursuit of Happiness.

Office for Emergency Management. Office of War Information war poster 1941 - 1945
"Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness" is a well-known phrase in the United States Declaration of Independence.[1] The phrase gives three examples of the "unalienable rights" which the Declaration says has been given to all human beings by their Creator, and for which governments are created to protect.

Contents

• 1 Origin and phrasing
  • 1.1 Lockean roots hypothesis
  • 1.2 Alternative hypotheses
• 2 Comparable mottos worldwide
• 3 References

Origin and phrasing
The United States Declaration of Independence was drafted by Thomas Jefferson, edited by the Committee of Five, then further edited and adopted by the Committee of the Whole of the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776.[2][3] The second section of text in the Declaration contains the phrase.

Jefferson's "original Rough draught" is on exhibit in the Library of Congress.[4] This version was used by Julian Boyd to create a transcript of Jefferson's draft,[5] 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:[6]

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 or inspirations 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. Jefferson declared himself an Epicurean during his lifetime: this is a philosophical doctrine that teaches the pursuit of happiness and proposes autarchy, which translates as self-rule, self-sufficiency or freedom. The greatest disagreement comes between those who suggest the phrase was drawn from John Locke and those who identify some other source.[citation needed]

Lockean roots hypothesis
Locke argued in his 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".[7] 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".[8] 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".[9]

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.[10][11][12][13][14]

The first and second article of the Virginia Declaration of Rights, adopted unanimously by the Virginia Convention of Delegates on June 12, 1776 and written by George Mason, speaks of happiness in the context of recognizably Lockean rights and is paradigmatic of the way in which "the fundamental natural rights of mankind" were expressed at the time.[15][16]

That all men are by nature equally free and independent and have certain inherent rights, of which, when they enter into a state of society, they cannot, by any compact, deprive or divest their posterity; namely, the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety.

—Virginia Declaration of Rights[17]
Benjamin Franklin was in agreement with Thomas Jefferson in downplaying protection of "property" as a goal of government. It is noted that Franklin found property to be a "creature of society" and thus, he believed that it should be taxed as a way to finance civil society.[18]​

 

[whitehall]

According to legend Jefferson wasn't much of an orator but he had a brilliant mind. There is no conspiracy. The fellow signers of whom Benjamin Franklin said "we must hang together or surely we will hang separately" approved the changes. It's a simple substitution of words that makes one of the greatest documents in history even greater.