Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are the most quoted words in American history, and almost nobody knows what the founders actually meant by them. In this second lesson of The Jenny Beth Show founding-principles series, host Jenny Beth Martin and constitutional scholar Bill Norton pick the Declaration of Independence back up and go line by line through the sentence that defines the American idea of freedom. Bill Norton, a constitutional scholar and founding-principles educator and the author of Behind the Bill of Rights, walks through why Thomas Jefferson chose the words "endowed" and "unalienable," and why they mean your rights are so permanent that not even the Creator who gave them can take them back. He explains why the founders rejected the divine right of kings, why John Adams insisted the Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people, and how life, liberty, and property are inseparably connected, so that when government seizes one, it quietly takes all three. The conversation moves from the right to life and self-preservation, to Jefferson's definition of rightful liberty, to John Locke's understanding of property as the fruit of your own labor, and finally to the people's right to alter or abolish a government that turns destructive, tempered by prudence and James Madison's warning that liberty is usually lost by slow and silent encroachment. It closes with the story of Jefferson and Adams, who died hours apart on July 4, 1826. Learn more at teapartypatriots.org and jennybethshow.com.
Guest: Bill Norton is a constitutional scholar and founding-principles educator and the author of Behind the Bill of Rights. He is a recurring guest on The Jenny Beth Show, where he leads a lesson-by-lesson training on America's founding documents. His companion books Behind the Declaration of Independence and Behind the Constitution continue the same project of returning to the principles behind the text.
In this lesson, Jenny Beth Martin and Bill Norton cover:
Timestamps:
00:00 — Welcome and Lesson 2 introduction
01:02 — Endowed by our Creator with unalienable rights
02:10 — John Adams: a Constitution for a moral and religious people
03:46 — Rejecting the divine right of kings
07:00 — What "unalienable" really means
11:53 — The right to life and self-preservation
15:29 — Rightful liberty: freedom within limits
22:35 — Consent of the governed
36:15 — Property and the fruits of your labor
45:33 — Time plus choices equals property
54:50 — The pursuit of happiness, rightly understood
01:10:21 — The right to alter or abolish government
01:17:10 — Prudence and the long train of abuses
01:19:41 — How liberty is lost: gradual encroachment
01:51:33 — Jefferson and Adams: friends, enemies, and July 4, 1826
Learn more at teapartypatriots.org and jennybethshow.com.