<![CDATA[RealClearPolitics - Articles by Eric Slauter]]>http://www.realclearpolitics.com/authors/?id=23014Author <![CDATA[Life, Liberty, & the Pursuit of Happiness]]> Sun, 03 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0500 In America’s revolutionary history, no document is more iconic than the Declaration of Independence, the short but sweeping statement issued by Congress on July 4, 1776, severing bonds with Britain and launching the Colonies on their path to independence.

But what does the Declaration of Independence actually declare? For most Americans today, the answer is embodied in the opening sentence of the second paragraph: “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.”

Perhaps no sentence in American...]]>