Copyright by James Carlson
As we begin to celebrate the 250th anniversary of our founding, we find a pivotal passage in the Declaration of Independence that relates principles of our economic happiness to principles of morality.
In Congress, July 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
The Creator God gave us rights based upon the premise of what is right morality. We recall that the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God (please also see previous blogs) come from the Creator God who gave us moral guidance in our conscience and the Bible. The Patriot’s Dream was the freedom to do what is right in the sight of God. This moral conscience provided a foundation for a both our moral behavior and our pursuit of economic happiness.
The passage in the Declaration, drafted by the Virginian - Thomas Jefferson, was clearly understood in the context of the culture it came from. The Virginia State Assembly at that time spoke of the pursuit of estate, which Jefferson called the pursuit of happiness. Even John Locke, a moral philosopher who taught about the moral rights of life, liberty, and property, spoke of the pursuit of economic happiness in his, Wealth of Nations [expanded later in his, Theory of Moral Sentiments]. If we were to take in context the ideas of the generation who gave us the Declaration of Independence (1776) we would understand it as the right to economic happiness. The happiness of our personal economy is realized for our own well being and that of others in society. We may pursue the invisible hand of self-interest as our economic right but we must do so with a moral conscience for how that affects ourselves and our community.
The right to transport one’s self and one’s possessions wherever we want to realize a greater economic advantage for ourselves is at the heart of the right of economic happiness. This is a part of our individual liberties along with our moral responsibilities. Economic freedom is a basic human right that governments are instituted to protect. Economic freedom is a right that governments are Divinely obligated to secure our; governments are supposed to protect our economic independence not subjugate it.
Clearly Great Britain had evinced a design to subjugate the colonies to become slave states to the nation of Great Britain. Many taxes that led to revolts like the Boston Tea Party are examples of the excessive economic burdens that Britain placed upon Americans. Freedom of worship, of economics, and the right of self-determination (individual moral and political freedoms) was what the United States of America was founded upon. The separation of economics and state is an idea that was at the heart of the American founding.
The same God who gave us our rights is also the God who taught us the value of what is right (morals) that we are supposed to follow in all aspects of our lives. As we have a conscience, the Bible improves upon our moral understanding of right and wrong. And this then has implications for our moral actions economically. Supporting ourselves, our families, and our community is a part of the moral obligations we have before God and our fellow man. Economics is basically a study of how society behaves with its money and is a therefore a sociology. A moral conscience is at the heart of mankind and is an intrinsic part of our economic decisions. The idea of an economic conscience is connected to the economic theory that is at the heart of the American Independence movement.
Comments