The rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, according to Jefferson, are "unalienable"—that is, they cannot be given or taken away, but belong to individuals by their nature. The assertion that these rights are "endowed by their Creator" should be interpreted in the light of Jefferson's deistic beliefs, which essentially identified God with nature and which emphasized reason and observation rather than Judaeo-Christian notions of divine revelation. Thus the rights of "all men" (construed here as all human beings) derive from their nature, rather than from any edict of governments. This view, of course, derives directly from Locke's notion of natural rights. In the sense that all human beings are naturally endowed with these same rights, they are "created equal"; that is, they enjoy political equality—an idea that will be explored further later in this section. Finally, Jefferson expresses quite clearly the idea that governments exist precisely for the purpose of securing these basic rights, and to the extent that governments transgress against them, they surrender their legitimacy.     

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

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