United States Supreme Court (1884) Butchers' Union, etc., Co. v. Cresent City, etc., Co., 111 U.S. 746, Justice Field referenced the individual's God-given rights:
<As in our intercourse with our fellow-men certain principles of morality are assumed to exist, without which society would be impossible, so certain inherent rights lie at the foundation of all governmental action, and upon a recognition of them alone can free institutions be maintained.
These inherent rights have never been more happily expressed than in the Declaration of Independence, "we hold these truths to be self-evident"-that is so plain that their truth is recognized upon their mere statement-"that all men are endowed"-not by edicts of emperors or decrees of parliament, or acts of
Congress, but "by their Creator with certain inalienable rights and that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, and to secure these"-not grant them but secure them-"governments are instituted among men deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed."
Among these inalienable rights, as proclaimed in that great document, is the right of men to pursue their happiness, by which is meant the right to pursue any lawful business or vocation, in any manner not inconsistent with the equal rights of others, which may increase their property or develop their faculties, so as to give them their highest enjoyment.> 1884US001
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American Quotations by William J. Federer, 2024, All Rights Reserved, Permission granted to use with acknowledgement.
Endnotes:
1884US001. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). United States Supreme Court, 1884, "Our Christian Heritage," Letter from Plymouth Rock (Marlborough, NH: The Plymouth Rock Foundation), p. 6.