A Governmental Duty to Protect the Pursuit of Happiness
January 15, 2025
Election victories teem with opportunities for a new administration to renew and reform governmental institutions, revise vital areas of law and policy and, perhaps, reconceptualize the meaning of our national security, redirect the course of foreign affairs, and reconsider the nation’s role in the world. They also invite philosophical exploration of fundamental aims and purposes of government, a grand theme which hearkens back to America’s founding document, the Declaration of Independence, in which Thomas Jefferson spoke of “the pursuit of happiness.”
Jefferson’s memorable use in 1776 of that magisterial phrase, “the pursuit of happiness”—what the Pennsylvanian, James Wilson, second in importance to James Madison as an architect of the Constitution, had earlier described in his extraordinary 1774 pamphlet, “Considerations on the Nature and Extent of the Legislative Authority of the British Parliament,” as “the happiness of the society,” which “is the first law of every government” —deeply influenced Jefferson and opened the eyes of American colonists about the foundations of democracy and the ends of government. Wilson, one of the brightest stars in the firmament of Scottish Enlightenment writers, explained, in terms familiar to students of the Social Contract and made famous by Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence, what citizens could expect in a newly minted republic.
Wilson wrote, “All men are, by nature, equal and free: no one has a right to any authority over another without his consent: all lawful government is founded on the consent of those who are subject to it: such consent was given with a view to ensure and to increase the happiness of the governed, above what they could enjoy in an independent and unconnected state of nature. The consequence is, that the happiness of the society is the first law of every government.” Wilson added that governmental representatives are “creatures” of those who elected them to office—the people—and that the representatives are accountable for “the exercise of that power, which was delegated to them.” He concluded, “The first maxims of jurisprudence are ever kept in view—that all power is derived from the people—that their happiness is the end of government.”
Wilson, like Jefferson, is speaking of the “public happiness,” which Garry Wills affirmed in his 1978 masterpiece on the Declaration of Independence, “Inventing America.” Wills said of Jefferson’s reference to happiness: “He had nothing vague or private in mind. He meant public happiness, which is measurable, which is, indeed, the test and justification of any government.” That conception of the principal purpose of government had, in fact, become commonplace in the 1770s. John Adams, in April of 1776, had reached the same conclusion: “The happiness of society is the end of government.” The role of government in promoting the “happiness of society” represented, for the founders, the organizing principle and rationale for a system that champions the rights and liberties of individuals, the opportunities for success, and the equal protection of the law. If not to pursue happiness of the people, then why else create government?
That was the central question raised by Social Contract theorists. If, in the framework of the theory, men and women chose to leave the State of Nature to create Civil Society, it was solely because the government had the duty to preserve and protect their inalienable rights, including life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And, it was asserted, if government failed in its first responsibility, then the people had the right to rebel, which was justification for the Revolutionary War.
Historically, presidents have employed soaring rhetoric and bold aspirations in their Inauguration Day speeches to explain how they would promote the “happiness of society.” Theodore Roosevelt touted a “Square Deal,” Franklin Roosevelt “The New Deal,” and John Kennedy “The New Frontier.” In his Inaugural Address in 1977, Jimmy Carter said he hoped his presidency would be remembered as one that “had torn down the barriers that separated those of different race and region and religion and, where there had been mistrust, built unity, with a respect for diversity.”
Inauguration Day affords the president a global platform, a unique moment, to share his plans, programs, and policies to promote public happiness after taking the simple 35-word Presidential Oath of Office—to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution.” Honoring the oath is a good way for President Donald Trump to achieve the happiness of America.
-David Adler