The Founders Knew that Unalienable Rights, Which Were Evident in "the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God" and Even Self-Evident, Came from God

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)

Rebellion against tyrants is obedience to God.

Freedom is not a gift bestowed upon us by other men, but a right that belongs to us by the laws of God and nature.

This will be the best security for maintaining our liberties. A nation of well-informed men who have been taught to know and prize the rights which God has given them cannot be enslaved. It is in the religion of ignorance that tyranny begins.

Samuel Adams (1722-1803)

The right to freedom being the gift of God Almighty, it is not in the power of man to alienate this gift and voluntarily become a slave.

John Adams (1735-1826)

Liberty must at all hazards be supported. We have a right to it, derived from our Maker. But if we had not, our fathers have earned and bought it for us, at the expense of their ease, their estates, their pleasure, and their blood.

John Adams, painted by John Trumbull, 1793

Be it remembered, however, that liberty must at all hazards be supported. We have a right to it, derived from our Maker.

I would define liberty to be a power to do as we would be done by. The definition of liberty to be the power of doing whatever the law permits, meaning the civil laws, does not seem satisfactory.

You have rights antecedent to all earthly governments, rights that cannot be repealed or restrained by human laws, rights derived from the Great Legislator of the Universe.  – John AdamsYou have rights antecedent to all earthly governments, rights that cannot be repealed or restrained by human laws, rights derived from the Great Legislator of the Universe.

John Hancock (1737-1793)

Some boast of being friends to government; I am a friend to righteous government, to a government founded upon the principles of reason and justice; but I glory in publicly avowing my eternal enmity to tyranny.

Sensible of the importance of Christian piety and virtue to the order and happiness of a state, I cannot but earnestly commend to you every measure for their support and encouragement.

Charles Carroll (1737-1832)

Without morals a republic cannot subsist any length of time; they therefore who are decrying the Christian religion, whose morality is so sublime and pure (and) which insures to the good eternal happiness, are undermining the solid foundation of morals, the best security for the duration of free governments.

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)

And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are of the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever.

James Madison (1751-1836)

The future and success of America is not in this Constitution, but in the laws of God upon which this Constitution is founded.

To suppose that any form of government will secure liberty or happiness without any virtue in the people, is a chimerical idea.

That the foundation of our national policy should be laid in private morality. If individuals be not influenced by moral principles, it is in vain to look for public virtue; it is, therefore, the duty of legislators to enforce, both by precept and example, the utility, as well as the necessity, of a strict adherence to the rules of distributive justice.

It is impossible for the man of pious reflection not to perceive in it [the Constitution] a finger of that Almighty hand which has been so frequently and signally extended to our relief in the critical stages of the revolution.

Alexander Hamilton (1757-1804)

The fundamental source of all your errors, sophisms and false reasonings is a total ignorance of the natural rights of mankind. Were you once to become acquainted with these, you could never entertain a thought, that all men are not, by nature, entitled to a parity of privileges. You would be convinced, that natural liberty is a gift of the beneficent Creator to the whole human race, and that civil liberty is founded in that; and cannot be wrested from any people, without the most manifest violation of justice. Civil liberty, is only natural liberty, modified and secured by the sanctions of civil society. It is not a thing, in its own nature, precarious and dependent on human will and caprice; but is conformable to the constitution of man, as well as necessary to the well-being of society.

Property Rights Also Are God-Given

Note as well that the Eighth and Tenth of the Ten Commandments affirm private property rights. Moreover, the Fourth Commandment commends work six days and rest on the Sabbath — a clear implication that work should be done in order to meet the needs of oneself and one’s family (an inherent affirmation of property rights). Make no mistake:

Property Rights Were On the Minds of America’s Founders, Those Who Influenced Them, and Those They Influenced

The Founders Knew that Unalienable Rights, Which Were Evident in “the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God” and Even Self-Evident, Came from God