re: #279 Dr. Shalit

Cato -

For reference, the words “Life, Liberty and Property” are derived from (i.e. a QUOTE from) THE SECOND TREATISE of JOHN LOCKE. Conventional wisdom is that, and I know “Conventional Wisdom” can be a synonym for “Caca de Toro,” under the Reigning British Monarch, George III, those “Rights” more or less existed. IOW Jefferson was looking for something MORE.

-S-

Could it not be that Jefferson was consciously riffing on Locke? Why would he not be at liberty (pesky word) to substitute a different right in the third place? And is the “pursuit of happiness” something insidious in your eyes?

Be that as it may, your note does nothing to prove your original assertion, viz. that “pursuit of happiness” was an eighteenth-century politically correct euphemism for “property”, and somehow implies that property was considered unsavory. I still find that to be nonsense.