Several years ago, I had a wonderful opportunity to bring my older children to hear Michael Farris speak. His leadership is key to so many great things – Home School Legal Defense, Patrick Henry College, Convention of States, and the list goes on and on. He is involved in so many important fights for this country. His presentation was great, but honestly the most memorable time from that evening to me was before the event, we had opportunity to meet him. He spoke to my children in a fun way about the famous words from the Declaration of Independence, “We hold these truths to be self evident…” I will never forget, he told my children in 1776, people used language like this, whereas today, we would just say… “Duh!” We laughed and laughed about that, but the truth is – that is exactly what that phrase means! These truths need no proof – they are abundantly clear. I mean really… “Duh”!
In 1776, the truths of the Declaration were very well understood, and universally accepted as unquestioned truth across society. In fact, if you go to the top of the page of the Declaration, it clearly identifies this document as “The unanimous Declaration of the United States of America”. So, the truths given to us there need no proof, they are self-evident, and they are unanimous across the United States. I like to point out the Declaration of Independence has never been repealed or amended to say something less than unanimous, so as far as I’m concerned, this is still the unanimous declaration of all the states.
As we have discussed in other articles like “Foundational Principles of the U.S – What are They?”, and “The Birth of a Nation”, the purpose of government in this nation is to secure Unalienable rights of the people, given to us – not by government – but by God Himself. The Declaration says it like this:
“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…”
– Declaration of Independence, 1776
In this article, I want to talk more about these “Unalienable Rights.” It is very important for us all to understand this principle. Webster’s 1828 Dictionary defines “unalienable” as:
UNALIENABLE – adjective. Not alienable; that cannot be alienated; that may not be transferred; as unalienable rights.
That’s a good definition, but I also found it valuable to look up “alienable”, so we will know what it is NOT. Webster’s 1828 Dictionary defines “alienable” as”
ALIENABLE – adjective. That may be sold, or transferred to another; as, land is alienable according to the laws of the State.
In the Patriot Academy classes we host, Rick Green and David Barton share some great quotes from our founders to drive this point home. Among them are these:
“[Human governments] could not give the rights essential to happiness… We claim them from a higher source – from the King of kings and Lord of all the earth. They are not annexed to us by parchments and seals. They are created in us by the decrees of Providence, which establish the laws of our nature. They are born with us; exist with us; and cannot be taken from us by any human power, without taking our lives.”
– John Dickinson, Signer of the Constitution
“The Supreme Being gave existence to man, together with the means of preserving that existence. He invested man with an inviolable right to personal liberty and personal safety.”
– Alexander Hamilton
“An unalienable right is a right to which we are entitled by our all wise and all beneficent Creator.”
– James Wilson, signer of the Declaration and Constitution
So, we can learn from our founders that God gave us unalienable rights and there is no way we can legitimately be separated from them. They were given to us by God Himself and we cannot sell them, or transfer them to someone else. Please understand, no level of government has ANY claim to presume to take away our unalienable rights. Those rights were given to us by God before there ever was any human government, and in the United States, we instituted government for the very purpose of securing these rights.
There are a couple ways I like to explain to help people better understand “unalienable” rights. First, have you ever been at an event, or in a conversation and things go wrong? You may have suddenly felt separated from everyone. In these situations, you might say you felt “alienated”. Well, we might feel alienated from time to time – but not from our God-given rights! They are not able to be alienated – they are “unalienable”.
Secondly, if you borrow money for something expensive for your home – maybe the addition of a swimming pool – the lender may place a “lien” against your home. So if you don’t uphold your end of the deal and pay the payments, then the lien will allow your home to be separated from you in order to pay the debt. Your home is “lien-able” because it can have a lien like this placed against it and it could be separated from you. Your God-given rights are UN-a”lien”able… they cannot have liens placed against them and cannot be separated from you. They were given to you by God Himself and they cannot be separated from you.
We don’t tend to hear much about unalienable rights anymore. If people talk about rights, they tend to use different descriptors. Most often, we talk about “Constitutional” rights. Or maybe we talk more specifically about our “First Amendment Rights”, or maybe “Second Amendment Rights”. This concerns me. I understand that generally speaking, the Constitution, or more particularly, the individual amendments protect specific unalienable rights. However, those amendments, or even the Constitution as a whole does not grant us these rights! For example, if the Second Amendment gave us the right to self-defense, then a Constitutional amendment could take that right away. If the First Amendment gave us the right to free speech, or free exercise of religion, then a change to that amendment would change our rights. This cannot be! The Constitution does not grant any right to us. Our rights were given by God, and they are Unalienable!
Dare I add another term to this conversation?? Think about the term, “Civil rights”. What does “Civil rights” mean? A check of the 1828 Dictionary gives us the definition of “Civil”:
CIVIL– adjective. 1. Relating to the community, or to the policy and government of the citizens and subjects of a state; as in the phrases, civil rights, civil government, civil privileges, civil war, civil justice.
I understand that unalienable rights of certain Americans were denied for a long time in this country and I would never want to make light of that fact. But I also worry that we are being conditioned to think of our rights as “Constitutional”, as if they are granted by the Constitution, or worse, as “Civil”, which is simply the policy of the community or government, and very easily changed. I worry we are losing visibility and familiarity with the truly American idea that we have “unalienable” rights from God that cannot be separated from us or changed.
May we all remember and refocus on the Unalienable rights endowed upon us by our Creator. May we also remember the purpose of government, the reason governments (at all levels) are instituted in this country. This purpose is found in the charter of our form of government, the Declaration of independence, when it says governments are instituted “to secure these rights…” I find government officials at all levels frequently need to be reminded of these self-evident, unanimous truths.
So true, so true. Excellent post. Today’s culture is in general terms the result of the continued walk away from the belief that all must answer to a higher being, God, and as such we have a government run by politicians, their appointees and administrative personnel who have a belief that the government must answer only to itself.
John Dickinson also penned that an unalienable right is a right “which God gave to you and which no inferior power has the right to take away”.
Until We the People repent, turn to God, turn from our wicked ways, and begin electing public officials who are willing to put the government back in it’s proper place subject to a higher power, we can expect that the view that a constitutionally protected right can simply be taken away with a change to the constitution – whether by outright amendment or by some tomfoolery application and interpretation of the laws through the judicial system.
We can still hold out hope – the text of the preamble to the Bill of Rights, second paragraph, which says:
“The Conventions of a number of states, having at the time of their adopting of the Constitution, expressed a desire, in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers, that further declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added: And as extending the ground of public confidence in the Government, will best ensure the beneficent ends of its interpretation.”
Outside of a divine movement of God to reverse course in this country, we are wholly reliant on the Supreme Court to ensure that the preamble is held as strictly as the text of the amendments themselves.
Yes – thank you for your comment. Yes, unfortunately, we already largely live under the assumption that the Supreme Court has full authority to meddle with unalienable rights of the people. This is violently demonstrated with the fact that nobody seems to question the Supreme Court’s jurisdiction to make it “legal” to end human life through abortion. Since when does the Supreme Court (or even the states for that matter) have jurisdiction to make “rules” whereby someone’s unalienable right to life may be taken away? We have to turn this kind of thing around. May God have mercy upon our land. Yes, I wholeheartedly agree that our only hope is through Him. Thank you!
Well said, as it is evident that many of our officials have have lost or never knew or understood the Providence of our Declaration of Independence and our forefathers intent of their never ending or replaceable words. Yet we have allowed man its inventing manner to turn their back on true intent and use our “Supreme Court” a manner to elude and dismiss our unalienable rights and take them captive with court decisions and “man made” rights through the laws of man. A mention of “In God We Trust” is dismissed ignorance. While it should ever be the starting point it is I now covered up and only seen are a ritual to be ignored and dismissed.
However, I believe we were given a wake up call in 2020. We were shaken and the power of prayer was reignited in our country. The many Christians that had retreated to their churches were locked out and their unalienable rights tested. Our Creator’s providence faced man’s law.
Sound familiar? Nothing new. It has been amazing as I have seen Our Creator is back in the public square and now recently back in the People’s House.
Therefore, are we watch Our Creator move, my hope is “looking up” knowing the gift of our country, the blessing we have been given are all purposed. We need to be obedient in the instruction we are given, no matter how out numbered we feel we are, know the battle is His.
Our hope is in our Creator. “ in God We Trust” We must walk in truth and prayerfully celebrate the original intent of our founding documents as our forefathers intended. Believe (obedience) and Receive (blessings).
Amen – yes, as painful as 2020 was, if it will be the wake up call that got the attention of Americans, then it will be way more than worth it! Thank you again for all of your participation and your involvement with your community and elected officials. I pray we will get there and God will give us victory, but I pray it is not so easy that we take it lightly or go back to sleep… May we be diligent and ever vigilant to keep these truths alive in our land! Thank you so much for your comment!
Unalienable rights and Inalienable rights are the same, they are rights that God has given to us, they are so precious because of that very fact. They can not be taken away by government or man.
In a new book by retired Colonel Oliver North, David Goetsch, and Archie Jones titled “American Gulags –Marxist Tyranny in Higher Education and What To Do About It” they have the following paragraph on page 6:
America’s educational system is turning young people into compliant, unthinking, ill-equipped minions of the Left
who reject the ideas that made America great, are blatantly ignorant of America’s history, view our nation as an evil
empire, and think that their rights come from government. Many students who attend government schools graduate
schools graduate not having mastered the fundamentals of reading, writing, and arithmetic.
A critical part of that paragraph is “…and think that their rights come from government.”
A great public education system has been turned into an indoctrination gulag that has eliminated God from His educational system and been turned into a governmental education system. It has succeeded in convincing those that attend it that government gives and takes our rights away, that there are no Unalienable Rights. It has succeeded in convincing those that attend it that there is no way to stand up to government, that they must simply go along and like it.
Our Heavenly Father gave us unalienable rights such as the right to life, to free speech, to defend oneself and our family, to dissolve a government that has grown unjust and unresponsive to the citizens that it was instituted to protect. These unalienable rights are not protected by these government school graduates (they are not taught about them). Imagine if their cell phones were taken away by this unjust government, they would be irate. They would claim they have a right to their cell phone and fight to keep their cell phones while ignoring the government and media attacks on free speech. They are ignorant about their unalienable rights.
As Jason and RaShell Sutherland taught in a recent Constitution Alive class, we must Read the Constitution, Study the Constitution, Teach the Constitution, Know your Constitutional Rights, Defend your Constitutional Rights, and Assert your Constitutional Rights. Ignorance can be corrected by education.
Thank you, Randy, for your note and for your encouragement! I will check out that book you quoted from – I have not read that one, but it sounds to be right on the money. Amen – we have to teach one another, and certainly the next generation, these truths before they are lost forever. May we ever stand up and defend our God-given, unalienable rights! Thank you again!
I agree 100%. And I also believe that these days that most of our elected officials in DC Seemed to have forgotten about what UNALIENABLE RIGHT ARE AND JUST WHO GAVE THEMN TO US. And I’m always trying to remind them when I see posts on social media that show that these UNALIENABLE RIGHT ARE BEING TAKEN AWAY FROM US. And some times I even quote the Article of the Constitution where it can be found as well as explaining what it means. I also feel that if someone wants to be in a Federal office that they should read or reread the Constitution and be given a test to make sure they know what not only it says they can do. But also what it says that cannot do. Because I think that today most don’t know what they can or cannot do when it come to law making these days. And I’m also seeing that organizations like the UN. WHO, WEF and others keep trying to tell us what laws we have to either pass or follow. when in fact they have no authority to tell us or really any country what laws or policies they have to make or follow.
Yes sir! The danger of these international organizations like UN, WHO, etc, is that if the “regulations” they put out are adopted as treaties, then the Constitution places treaties on the same level with the federal Constitution itself. I am regularly thankful that our founders made the bar high to adopt treaties (2/3 of the Senate). Yes, we also do need them to understand unalienable rights and where they come from! Thank you for your comment!