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Article: Defending the Declaration: How the Bible Influenced the Writing of the Declaration of Independence.
- Article from:
- National Review
- Article date:
- April 30, 1990
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1990 National Review, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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FAR FROM being the great end of government, "the pursuit of happiness" is supposed to be one of those ideals, like "social progress" or perpetual world peace, upon which the conservative looks with suspicion. It was not merely a vain promise the Founders enshrined in our Declaration, so this criticism goes, but moral sanction for the unbridled voluptuaries of our day inflamed by ever more destructive appetites-"chasing their happiness out an upper-story window" (in the classic imagery of Malcolm Muggeridge), never mind who might happen to be standing below. Worse, argue Muggeridge and others, this hollow promise only tempts the inevitable failures in that pursuit to blame ...