British naval officer uniform

. . . life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness was a phrase that Thomas Jefferson borrowed and modified from the enlightenment philosopher John Locke, who had originally contended that these rights were life, liberty and the ownership of property. The enlightenment, far from a free-for-all anarchic movement in which people would do whatever the hell they wanted to do just because they feel like doing it, suggested that their was a better way to govern a people.