Key Fact

“Jefferson inserted into a revolutionary document an abstract principle applicable to all men. What is this abstract principle? That all human beings, by their nature, are endowed with certain unalienable rights. Among these, the declaration says, are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And also religious liberty. The founders believed that prominent also among those unalienable rights was the right to property, which they understood very broadly. Not just material goods and land. What do you have to do to qualify for these rights? That’s the beauty of it. Nothing.”

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