The words “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness” are in what founding document?

Why this is the answer

The phrase comes from the second sentence of the Declaration of Independence, where it names three of the unalienable rights that all people are endowed with. Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration in 1776, and he and the other Founding Fathers treated life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness as natural rights, held by every person from birth and beyond the reach of any government. Those ideas about freedom and individual rights were the basis for declaring independence. Because the British government was not protecting the colonists' rights, the colonies took back the power they had given it. The obvious wrong guess is the Constitution, and it is easy to see why. The Fifth Amendment says no person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law, and the Fourteenth Amendment places the same limit on the states. Notice the swap in the third word. The Constitution protects property in that spot, while the Declaration speaks of the pursuit of happiness. If you hear "happiness," you are in the Declaration. The difference reflects what each document does. The Declaration is a statement of principles, explaining why people are entitled to choose their own government. The Constitution is a working charter, so it speaks in terms of what governments may and may not do to a person, with the legal guarantee of due process. Jefferson himself had a long public career after 1776. Before serving as the third President, from 1801 to 1809, he was governor of Virginia and the first U.S. Secretary of State. He was a strong supporter of individual rights, especially freedom of religion, and for that reason he did not want a strong national government. Remembering that the author of this line cared so much about personal liberty makes the link between the phrase and the document easier to hold. The answer here is a single document. Give its full name, the Declaration of Independence, and the officer will have nothing to question.