{"id":2294748,"date":"2024-07-14T15:18:02","date_gmt":"2024-07-14T19:18:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/there-is-no-liberty-or-pursuit-of-happiness-without-life\/"},"modified":"2024-07-14T15:21:14","modified_gmt":"2024-07-14T19:21:14","slug":"there-is-no-liberty-or-pursuit-of-happiness-without-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/there-is-no-liberty-or-pursuit-of-happiness-without-life\/","title":{"rendered":"There Is No Liberty or Pursuit of Happiness Without Life"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fthere-is-no-liberty-or-pursuit-of-happiness-without-life%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2294748&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The article discusses the importance of the \u200cDeclaration\u200b of \u200cIndependence and the\u200b foundational right to life as outlined by\u2062 the \u200dFounding \u2062Fathers. It\u2063 highlights how\u200c the signing of the Declaration was a courageous \u2063act\u200c and emphasizes the\u200c significance of \u200dvaluing and preserving\u2064 life above all other rights. The article also touches on \u2064the historical context of the concept of rights, drawing\u200d from the teachings of philosophers\u2064 like \u200dThomas Aquinas and John Locke. It criticizes the Republican Party\u200c for allegedly \u200dabandoning \u2064their \u200bcommitment to the right to life in favor of\u2064 political expediency. The article concludes by \u200demphasizing the importance of upholding moral truths in shaping \u200bpolitical\u200c agendas.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><br \/>\n<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\"> <?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><html><body><\/p>\n<header> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/commentary\/\">  Commentary <\/a>   <span> <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/author\/washingtonstand\/\">  <\/a> <\/p>\n<p> <span>   By <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/author\/washingtonstand\/%20\"><span>S.A. McCarthy, The Washington Stand<\/span><\/a> <\/span> <span>   July 14, 2024 at 11:00am <\/span> <\/span>  <\/header>\n<section>\n<p>This year, I began a new Fourth of July tradition with my family and read out loud the Declaration of Independence to my wife and daughter. I will admit that it has been years since I\u2019ve read the document in full, so I was thus struck anew by the wisdom, clarity, and moral courage with which that Declaration was penned.<\/p>\n<p>It is striking also that the 56 men who so famously signed that Declaration knew that they were, essentially, signing their own death warrants, but so committed were they to the principles enumerated therein, that they considered their lives a fair price to pay for the securing of these principles.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor,\u201d the Signers wrote.<\/p>\n<p>Certainly, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/40-percent-british-christians-prefer-not-share-faith-believers-reminded-call-boldness\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">British<\/a> would have hung the men as traitors had the Revolutionary War not been won. In a famous story, one of the signers, after putting his name to the page, urged his fellow Americans to \u201chang together\u201d and not to allow frictions, rivalries, disputes, or any such to divide the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/u-s-u-k-france-germany-italy-release-joint-statement-on-israel\/\" title=\"Joint statement on Israel released by U.S., U.K., France, Germany, and Italy.\">united front presented<\/a> to the British. Ever the wit, Benjamin Franklin then responded, \u201cWe must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Declaration of Independence, the charter for this great nation\u2019s founding, was written against \u201ca long train of abuses and usurpations\u201d and guaranteed the protection of \u201ccertain unalienable Rights \u2026 among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.\u201d It is no mere alliterative turn of phrase that prompted the Founding Fathers to place \u201cLife\u201d first in this brief litany and to elevate it above other freedoms by name.<\/p>\n<p>All other rights stem from this one. No man may be free if he is dead, no man may pursue happiness if he is dead, no man may practice his own religion or speak freely or bear arms or stand trial by a jury of his peers if he is dead. All other rights \u2014 not merely their exercise but their very existence \u2014 rest upon this one foundational right.<\/p>\n<p>Much of what has been recognized, throughout legal history, as a \u201cright\u201d is rooted in the writing of the 13th century Dominican philosopher Thomas Aquinas, recognized as an intellectual giant throughout the ages. Aquinas\u2019s articulation of a \u201cright\u201d is rather \u201cthat which is right.\u201d In his voluminous \u201cSumma Theologica,\u201d Aquinas said that there is a right to life \u2014 that is to say, respect for and preservation of life is \u201cthat which is right.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Aquinas wrote that \u201cit is unlawful to kill any man, since in every man though he be sinful, we ought to love the nature which God has made, and which is destroyed by slaying him.\u201d Of course, Aquinas continues, the execution of grave sinners whose sins threaten to corrupt or grievously wound the common good is lawfully permissible. \u201cOn the other hand the life of righteous men preserves and forwards the common good, since they are the chief part of the community. Therefore it is in no way lawful to slay the innocent,\u201d Aquinas concludes.<\/p>\n<p>The notion of \u201crights\u201d as commonly used today is rooted in Aquinas\u2019s teachings but articulated by the scholastics of the School of Salamanca, particularly in response to the rise of liberal and atheistic philosophy in the 16th and 17th centuries. John Locke, whose writings directly and heavily influenced the thinking of the Founding Fathers, considered life to be a right derived only from God, arguing that humans, being created by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/southern-baptist-president-slams-gop-abortion-backpedal-platform-may-subject-change-gods-word-not\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">God<\/a>, are His property, according to one of Locke\u2019s definitions of property.<\/p>\n<p>The Founding Fathers themselves seemed to take this view, writing that human beings are \u201cendowed by their Creator\u201d with this right to life. This was, again, not simply some effort to lend a grandiose theological flair to the Declaration, but was a statement of fact, as evinced by the document\u2019s concluding appeal \u201cto the Supreme Judge of the world\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<p>These men recognized \u2014 as had been articulated by Aquinas, centuries of Christian scholastics, and even John Locke \u2014 that the right to life was, at times, in need of the state\u2019s protection, but was not a right conferred by the state. God alone holds that authority, God alone is that \u201cSupreme Judge\u201d and Supreme Authority who bestows this most fundamental of rights.<\/p>\n<p>In short, the Founding Fathers based the charter for America\u2019s founding on an eternal moral code. They did not write a founding document that suited their own political agendas, but they rather suited their political agendas to what they knew to be <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/hawley-compares-fight-against-abortion-to-the-moral-evil-of-slavery\/\" title=\"Hawley Compares Fight Against Abortion To The \u2018Moral Evil Of Slavery\u2019\">moral truth<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Long the party of proud patriots, the Republican Party <a href=\"https:\/\/washingtonstand.com\/commentary\/led-by-trump-2024-gop-platform-slashes-decades-of-prolife-priorities-\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">decided on Monday<\/a>, July 8, to surrender its devotion to the most foundational right, the right to life. The vision of the Founding Fathers, the eternal moral truth upon which the rest of the nation\u2019s many virtues and great goods are built, was mostly abandoned in favor of political expediency.<\/p>\n<p>The first Republican President, Abraham Lincoln, split the nation with a brutal Civil War, following in the same spirit of the Founding Fathers and their devotion to moral truth. Slavery, Lincoln became convinced, was a moral evil. Far more evil is the horror of abortion, the mass slaughter of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/planned-parenthood-melts-down-over-slew-of-pro-life-wins-across-the-country\/\" title=\"Planned Parenthood Melts Down over Slew of Pro-Life Wins Across the Country\">innocent unborn children<\/a> by the tens of millions. But unlike Lincoln, the Republican Party of today seems to have more interest in testing the cultural winds than in casting a vision for a society based on moral truth, a fact the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/trump-touts-gops-new-2024-platform-party-common-sense\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">newly diluted GOP platform<\/a> makes abundantly clear.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCourage,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.chesterton.org\/quotations\/COURAGE\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">G.K. Chesterton<\/a> wrote in 1908, \u201cis almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of a readiness to die.\u201d This was certainly true of the Founding Fathers and the men who signed that Declaration of Independence. Each man who signed his name there risked his life, in the hopes of securing the right to life for himself and his children and his children\u2019s children.<\/p>\n<p>Not a single man who signed that Declaration did so for the sake of political expediency. The \u201cpractical\u201d or \u201cpragmatic\u201d route would have been\u00a0not\u00a0to start a Revolutionary War and take on the greatest military power in the world but to \u201csuffer, while evils are sufferable\u2026\u201d Instead, these men took the difficult route, not bothering about consensus or the\u00a0status quo, but staking their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor on a series of eternal moral truths.<\/p>\n<p>As I read the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/reinvestigating-woke-nprs-absurd-trigger-warning-declaration-independence\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Declaration of Independence<\/a> to my wife and daughter, I can only pray that the Republican Party might once again be the home of patriots, the sons and daughters of the Founding Fathers, not political opportunists cowering before \u201cconsensus\u201d and polling data.<\/p>\n<p><em>This <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/sen-loeffler-fires-back-after-ossoff-accuses-her-of-campaigning-with-kkk-member\/\" title=\"Sen. Loeffler Fires Back After Ossoff Accuses Her of Campaigning with KKK Member\">article appeared originally<\/a> on <a href=\"https:\/\/washingtonstand.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Washington Stand<\/a>. <\/em><\/p>\n<\/section>\n<p><\/body><\/html><br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In a recent commentary by S.A. McCarthy, the author reflects on the significance of the Declaration of Independence and the Founding Fathers&#8217; commitment to the right to life. The author emphasizes the importance of this foundational right, which serves as the basis for all other freedoms. The article criticizes the Republican Party for abandoning its dedication to the right to life in favor of political expediency, contrasting this with the moral courage displayed by the Founding Fathers. The author calls for a return to the principles of moral truth and courage that guided the nation&#8217;s founding, urging the Republican Party to uphold these values<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2294749,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Soldier-holding-newborn-baby-with-American-flag.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[4439,7703,3848,35023,5579],"class_list":["post-2294748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-freedom","tag-liberty","tag-life","tag-pursuit-of-happiness","tag-rights"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Soldier-holding-newborn-baby-with-American-flag.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2294748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2294748"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2294748\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2294749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2294748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2294748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2294748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}