Question

"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.'

In this quotation from the Declaration of independence, the term "unalienable rights" refers to rights that

A: Cannot be abridged by any government
B: Are provided by monarchs to their subjects
C: are derived by people through custom and tradition
D: Must be won by people through revolution

Answer 1

Hmm, that's odd. None of these is correct. In law, to alienate something is to give it to someone else. Thus, something is "inalienable" if it cannot be given away. So the individual's right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness (whatever that means -- in the draft it was supposed to be property) are all things he cannot give away. Even if he signs papers surrendering his life and liberty to others, they are null and void.

Jefferson made this point because he was anticipating a rejoinder from those who opposed the Declaration that would say that whatever deprivations the colonist had suffered, they had voluntarily chosen to suffer them in order to reap the benefit of being English subjects. That is, given that the Americans gladly accepted British military power to defend them from the French and Indians a mere 20 years earlier, it could be said they had at least implicity agreed to the terms of being British subjects -- which included, as they well knew, not having direct representation in Parlaiment, paying taxes like everybody else, putting up troops, and so forth.

What Jefferson is saying is that EVEN IF this is all true -- even if the colonists implicity or explicitly agreed to surrender certain rights in order to acquire the benefits of England's sovereingty, such agreements would automatically be null and void. Because the rights are inalienable -- can't be surrendered, even if you want to.

The idea persists today: you cannot sign a contract to have yourself murdered. Such a contract is illegal, unenforceable, and its existence would give someone who killed you in agreement with its terms no defense at all against a charge of murder. That's because your right to life is inalienable. You cannot sign it away, no matter what. Same with your liberty: you cannot sign a contract to become a slave, and any such contract is automatically void.