USA HISTORY

JACKSONIAN DEMOCRACY 1825 1850

DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA BY ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE

Question [CLICK ON ANY CHOICE TO KNOW THE RIGHT ANSWER]
According to the Declaration of Independence, what are our natural rights?
A
Equal protection under the law
B
Freedom of religion, speech, and assembly
C
Property
D
Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness
Explanation: 

Detailed explanation-1: -"Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” is a well-known phrase from the United States Declaration of Independence. The phrase gives three examples of the unalienable rights which the Declaration says have been given to all humans by their Creator, and which governments are created to protect.

Detailed explanation-2: -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-3: -Locke wrote that all individuals are equal in the sense that they are born with certain “inalienable” natural rights. That is, rights that are God-given and can never be taken or even given away. Among these fundamental natural rights, Locke said, are “life, liberty, and property."

Detailed explanation-4: -When the authors of the U.S. Declaration of Independence spoke of all people being endowed with “unalienable Rights, ” such as “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness, ” they were confirming their belief in the existence of “natural rights.”

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