The pursuit of Happiness

Edward Cone
News & Record
7-3-05

The Declaration issued in Philadelphia 229 Fourth-of-Julys ago is a compact piece of work, only about twice the length of the column you are reading -- and that includes a laundry list of grievances against the King that pads the word count considerably. Thomas Jefferson, who wrote the thing in about two-and-a-half weeks, moves nimbly from the philosophical to the practical, devoting one section to the lofty principles of liberty and governance and the next to "a long train of abuses and usurpations" perpetrated by George III.

These Kingly misdeeds are presented by the dozen ("He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly...imposing Taxes on us without our Consent...depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury...") and offered as "Facts…submitted to a candid world." The opinions of the rest of the world mattered much more to our Founding Fathers than they do to, say, John Bolton. The Declaration begins with a nod to "a decent respect to the opinions of mankind," and promises to explain exactly why the newly rebranded "united States of America" were entitled to break up with England

But the litany of wrongs, however thoroughly it shows George to be "marked by every act which may define a Tyrant," is just detail. The centerpiece of the Declaration, the logic of independence itself, is spelled out in the crucial second section -- the part with the Happiness in it. You know: "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. --- That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed..."

Got that? Every person has rights (more than are listed here) that cannot be taken away, and government exists to make sure those rights are enjoyed by the people. Then Jefferson drops the hammer, explaining that the People have the Right "to alter or to abolish" any government that "becomes destructive of these ends," and that while this is not the kind of activity to be undertaken lightly, well, here's our list of specific and serious problems with the folks currently in charge.

(That kind of talk can still get you in bad trouble in much of the world. Last month, for example, Microsoft agreed to censor words including "democracy" and "human rights" on its Chinese-language websites. And although we’ve been talking about it since 1776, the United States has not always been great at living up to its ideals. Even now we could use a few more liberties, and the ones we’ve got must be guarded jealously, not only against foreign threats but from our own government and the corporations that wield as much power today as did the principalities of Jefferson's era.)

The first two enumerated rights, life and liberty, are straightforward enough, but this business about the pursuit of Happiness is more complex. Note that it is a right to the pursuit of Happiness, not to Happiness itself, and that despite the messages of our consumer culture, Happiness is not always the same thing as Fun. And nothing makes some people unHappier than the prospect of other people being Happy in a way that does not suit them. Yet this right to a personal definition of Happiness, and the right to pursue it, remains at the core of what Americans want their country to be. It is the Declaration’s most profound idea.

The final section of the Declaration is a statement of purpose: we’re out of here. The ties to the British Crown are broken, the United Colonies are now Independent States. We are free.

Edward Cone (www.edcone.com, efcone@mindspring.com) writes a column for the News & Record most Sundays.

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