re: #327 Cato the Elder

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.

Late to the thread — was off watching “Alien”… the original is a classic gothic horror, set in space.

My understanding is Jefferson was consciously quoting Locke — but ran into a problem. He wanted to use the phrase “life, liberty, property…”, but wanted it made clear that people weren’t to be considered property even though some were at the time. When he couldn’t get that agreement from some of the other delegates, the phrase was changed to “life, liberty, pursuit of happiness…”

In short, the use of the word “property” would have entrenched slavery, and Jefferson (and some others) didn’t want to do that.