The traditional scholarly consensus holds that the Declaration of Independence owes much of its argument to the influence of John Locke's social contract liberalism. And yet, a dominant view of the relation between the right to the pursuit of happiness and the rest of the document has yet to emerge. An extended treatment of this right has not been published for fifty years, and even the most sustained, thoughtful research too often relies on what one key interpreter has said on the subject—whether the phrase's immediate author or a prominent political philosopher taken to be decisive.

This study considers how the right to the pursuit of happiness was understood as part of American public thought at the time the country was founded. It looks for clues within the Declaration itself and from a wide range of public and private statements made by the document's signers and other citizens, from the American Revolution to the early years of the republic. I conclude with some thoughts on what the pursuit of happiness means for the character of American politics, both at the time of the founding and today.

In organizing my study, I have taken Thomas Jefferson on his own testimony when discussing the Declaration, that the argument contained there was not some private eccentricity but “an expression of the American mind.” I probe whether the historical record with regard to the pursuit of happiness bears out Jefferson's description. Although I readily admit that there are important distinctions to be made in the political thought of the founding era's most prominent men—differences that quickly multiply as more names are included—this study has purposely emphasized what these men held in common. This approach is not only appropriate when considering questions of political ends rather than means, but only in this way can we find a definition of the right to the pursuit of happiness that may be regarded as widely accepted at the time, and that may be considered truly authoritative for the American political tradition.