Dynamic Declarations - Essay Example

In many ways, then, the Declaration of Sentiments and Revolutions is meant to correct a perceived error in the Jefferson document: that the word “man” is hardly univocal. Instead, natural rights belong to man and woman equally, and the language used in the Declaration is thereby at best deceptive and at worst mistaken. The very concept of “natural rights” dictates that they belong to all human beings equally and always, independent or not contingent upon the particular laws or values of any given society.

Natural rights are universal constructs that cannot be violated, at least according to the Lockean or Jeffersonian notions of them. Although there are surely natural differences between the sexes of man and woman, this does not entail there are differences in what the individual human being deserves with respect to his or her natural rights. Jefferson and Stanton approach the topic of natural rights with the idea that they are inalienable. Nevertheless, Stanton’s issue is not so much with what natural rights are, but to whom they are given.

Jefferson lays the foundation for natural rights, saying, “[human beings] are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”. A natural right is thus a freedom, not a power. This declaration of rights does not say that individuals have the right to use others to pursue their own happiness, or to use others to live their life. This would be an example of a power over another person and the Declaration of Independence certainly does not hold to this view, for it is definitive of those things the document was written to combat (namely, the power of the King).

Rather, these natural rights are freedoms to not be interfered with in living one’s life and pursuing one’s happiness. A natural right is therefore not