OPINION:
Why all the dislike of the U.S. Declaration of Independence (“Preserve and protect U.S. Constitution from all enemies,” Web, July 23)?
Just think, without that creator-endowed “Life,” told of in the Declaration, a person is just plumb dead. Without “Liberty,” life is boring.
And a lack of “Happiness” turns people into old grouches.
Thomas Jefferson was not the only writer of the Declaration, as mentioned in the op-ed. He had four helpers on the drafting committee, including Benjamin Franklin and John Adams. They had it made, being able to borrow from the horse-riding, courier-delivered Virginia Declaration of Rights, written by George Mason. In that were “Life,” “Liberty” and “the pursuit of Happiness.”
It does seem Mr. Jefferson and the other drafters should have included “Property” in the Declaration, too. Although British philosopher John Locke had in mind the economic meaning of property when considering all of Mr. Mason’s Declaration, “Property” of a person means character, and it includes a divine-instilled little voice called conscience, which tells of good and warns of bad.
Inattention to that little voice may prove awfully troublesome — for persons, society and our nation. The Declaration of Independence is the moral foundation of the structure of the Constitution and was the source for James Madison’s writing of the Bill of Rights. The key words in the Preamble happen to have their own sources in the Bible.
THOMAS J. PIERPOINT
Lake Ridge, Virginia
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