US CITIZENSHIP TEST PREPARATION

Detailed explanation-1: -In the Declaration, “the pursuit of happiness” is listed with the other “unalienable rights” of “life” and “liberty.” Those are qualities of existence, states of being. You are either alive or dead, free or enslaved. Governments have something to say about those states by how they govern their citizens.

Detailed explanation-2: -The pursuit of Happiness is the attempt to attain and maintain that state of open-heartedness. The right to pursue Happiness is the right to open your heart as you choose. The right to pursue Happiness is the right to love as you choose; the right to love your freedom; the right to love your life.

Detailed explanation-3: -The meaning of the term “unalienable Rights.” The Declaration of Independence states “all Men are … endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights.” What does “unalienable Rights” mean? (In the final draft edited by Congress, the word “inalienable” was inadvertently changed to “unalienable” by a copyist.)

Detailed explanation-4: -Thomas Jefferson took the phrase “pursuit of happiness” from Locke and incorporated it into his famous statement of a peoples’ inalienable right to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” in the Declaration of Independence.