What Does The Declaration of Independence Refer To The Rights As Being Unalienable?

The Declaration of Independence refers to some rights as being unalienable.

But do you know what does this unalienable means here?

Actually, it refers to Human Being’s Natural Rights.

No matter what, these natural rights are unalienable under all circumstances.

The historic Declaration of Independence defined these rights as Life, Liberty, Equality, and the Pursuit of Happiness.

[Fact: Did You Know? Thomas Jefferson, The Main Author of The Historical Document, His Life Is Especially Remembered For Writing This Document. Although Jefferson Served As The 3rd President of The United States of America]

But Why The Declaration Had To Mention These Rights As Being ‘Unalienable’?

The Declaration of Independence had to mention these rights as being Unalienable because these are human beings’ birthright, which they get as a gift from nature (or god).

These rights keep the human race separate from other living species (animals, birds, insects, etc).

Therefore, no matter what, but these rights are indestructible under all certain conditions.

During the British colonial rule in the 13 colonies, the British tried to alienate these great ends of the American colonists.

Primarily, they intended to do it via imposing some unrealistic and unjust laws on their heads.

Because of this reason, to protect the rights, the American people became obliged to fight the Revolutionary War against them, even though Great Britain was their mother country.

In 1776, the Declaration explained that Great Britain would no longer rule the 13 colonies of the North American continent.

Colonists would choose leaders and create their own government, which would protect and develop their natural rights in a much better way.

The notable thing is these Unalienable rights described in the Declaration later became significant factors for the rapid evolution towards Democracy in world politics.

I hope now you have got the answer on what does unalienable means here and why the document talked a lot about them.

[Did You Know? The Natural Rights Philosophy Is The Harvest of Enlightenment Era. Great British Philosophers John Locke, Thomas Hobbes Introduced It To The People of Europe & America. These Ideologies Highly Influenced American Leaders During The Revolution]

What Is The Source of These Unalienable Rights?

The philosophies of these rights highly spread during the time of the Enlightenment era.

We found its depth explanation in the writings of two great English philosophers, name Thomas Hobbes and John Locke.

In their writings, we get to know the social contract theory in the state of nature.

According to the Social Contract theory, far before, the system of states or government had no existence when we human beings lived in the state of nature.

At that time, physically powerful people dominated and tortured physically weak people and used them as their slaves.

The dominance and torture of the powerful tyrants sicked weak people’s life, liberty, and the ways to obtain happiness.

But as we know, the human being is the most intelligent creature on this planet. They always find out a way when there seems to be no way.

In the nature’s state, they also find out a solution to these problems.

To get rid of the problems and save life, liberty, equality, and happiness from the attack of the powerful tyrants, they decided to come to a social agreement.

Through this agreement, they centralized their power into one single authority’s hand.

From that authority, they also took the oath of certainty for securing their life, liberty and happiness.

With the flow of time, these authorities became kings or rulers and nowadays governments.

If we analyze this whole evolution of the birth of the state, government, and politics, then it’s all about protecting common people’s life, liberty, and happiness.

From the point of view of Hobbes and Locke, we can say that the people of a state or country are the actual source of governments’ power.

Hence, it is always the government’s primary duty to protect their citizen’s Unalienable rights under all circumstances.  

How Did It Include Into The Declaration of Independence?

The American leaders who prepared the Declaration of Independence were highly influenced by the ideologies of these Enlightenment philosophers.

We can feel it via reading the Declaration.

The main leaders who drafted the document were included Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, etc.

So, from their influence, these Unalienable rights entered in the historic document of the United States.

Conclusion

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