What are the natural rights of the colonists?

OCR: 6 cited passage(s) are machine-read (OCR) text of old printings; quotations reproduce the stored OCR text, misreadings included.

1. WHAT HE SAID (the record)

Record ledger

• BELIEF (undated): Samuel Adams believed that property is a valuable and sacred acquisition, essential even in the savage state of nature, and that the colonists' property rights are violated when money is taken from them without their consent. He argues that property is a natural right, necessary for both savage and civil society. (key quote above) [1]
• BELIEF (undated): Samuel Adams believed that the British constitution has its foundation in the law of God and nature, implying that the colonists possess natural rights derived from this foundation. "It is the glory of the British constitution, that it has its foundation in the law of God and nature." [2]
• BELIEF (undated): Samuel Adams believed the natural rights of the colonists are personal security, personal liberty, and private property. He argues these rights are derived from charters, common law, and acts of Parliament, and are essential rights of Englishmen as declared in Parliament from Magna Charta to his time. (key quote above) [3]
• BELIEF (undated): Samuel Adams believed that a man's right to enjoy and have sole disposal of his own property is a natural right. He argued that this right is essential to the British constitution and American subjects, and that measures which make property precarious threaten both property and government. "is essentially a natural right, that a man shall quietly enjoy, and have the sole disposal of his own property." [4]
• BELIEF (undated): Samuel Adams believed that a man's natural right to quietly enjoy and have sole disposal of his own property is essential and adopted into the British constitution, which he considered to have its foundation in the law of God and nature. [5]
• BELIEF (1769-01-09): Samuel Adams believed that every man who is taxed has a right to be present in person or by his own representative in the body that taxes him, and that taxation and representation are inseparable. He also believed that a man's property is his own and cannot rightly be taken from him without his consent, and that these principles are essential to liberty and the being of a free government. "IT seems to be generally agreed, that every man who is taxed has a right to be present in person or by his own representative, in the body that taxes him ; or as Lord Carnbden has expressed it, that ' taxation and representation are inseparable.' A man's property is the fruit of his industry ; and if it may be taken from him under any pretence whatever, at the will of another, he cannot be said to be free..." [6]
• BELIEF (1771-09-09): Samuel Adams believed that the natural rights of the colonists included their property rights, which could not be taken from them without their consent. He argued that the preservation of property is the end of government, and that the supreme power cannot take from any man any part of his property without his own consent. "The supreme power cannot take from any man any part of his property without his own consent. For the preservation of property being the end of government, and that for which men enter into society" [7]
• BELIEF (1772-01-27): Samuel Adams believed that the natural rights of the colonists included their own rights and liberties, which were essential to the British constitution and could not be altered by the supreme legislative without changing the constitution itself. This belief is grounded in his reference to Magna Charta as declaratory of the principal grounds of the fundamental laws and liberties of England and his argument that the constitution of the state ought to be fixed. "it is affirm'd by Lord Coke, to be declaratory of the principal grounds of the fundamental laws and liberties of England... sua jura, suas libertates, their own rights, their own liberties" [8]
• BELIEF (undated): Samuel Adams believed that the natural rights of the colonists include life, liberty, and property, and that these rights cannot be alienated or surrendered, as they are a gift from God Almighty. (key quote above) [9]
• BELIEF (undated): Samuel Adams believed the natural rights of the colonists included the right to life, liberty, and property, along with the right to support and defend them. He also believed that all men have a right to remain in a state of nature and to leave a society in case of intolerable oppression, and that every natural right not expressly given up remains. "Among the Natural Rights of the Colonists are these First. a Right to Life; Secondly to Liberty; thirdly to Property; together with the Right to support and defend them in the best manner they can." [10]

What cuts against it

• ACTION (undated): Samuel Adams did not explicitly advocate for the separation of the colonies from Britain despite his strong beliefs in the natural rights of the colonists, which may suggest a belief in the importance of remaining within the British constitutional framework. "When we mention the rights of the subjects in America, and the interest we have in the British constitution, in common with all other British subjects, we cannot justly be suspected of the most distant thought of an independency on Great Britain." [5]

• STATED REASON (undated): Samuel Adams stated that the colonies would refuse independence if offered to them, indicating a belief in the value of the connection with Britain despite the perceived infringement on natural rights. "They are far from being insensible of their happiness, in being connected with the mother country, and of the mutual benefits derived from it to both." [5]

• ACTION (undated): Samuel Adams did not advocate for the immediate and complete separation of the colonies from Britain, which may suggest a belief in the importance of working within the existing constitutional framework to secure natural rights. "It is, therefore, the indispensable duty of all, to cultivate and establish a mutual harmony, and to promote the intercourse of good offices between them ; and while both have the free enjoyment of the rights of our happy constitution, there will be no grounds of envy and discontent in the one, nor of jealousy and mistrust in the other." [5]

2. HOW IT APPLIES (reasoning; inference is marked)

1. Samuel Adams believed that the natural rights of the colonists included personal security, personal liberty, and private property, as derived from charters, common law, and acts of Parliament. (key quote above) [3]

2. He also believed that these rights were essential to the British constitution and that the colonists were entitled to all the essential rights of Englishmen. (key quote above) [3]

3. Samuel Adams argued that the colonists' property rights were violated when money was taken from them without their consent, indicating a belief that property is a natural right. "Now, what property can the colonists be conceived to have, if their money may be granted away by others, without their consent ?" [1]

4. He believed that the natural rights of the colonists included life, liberty, and property, and that these rights could not be alienated or surrendered, as they were a gift from God Almighty. (key quote above) [9]

5. Samuel Adams believed that the British constitution had its foundation in the law of God and nature, implying that the colonists possessed natural rights derived from this foundation. "It is the glory of the British constitution, that it has its foundation in the law of God and nature." [2]

3. HIS TAKE

Record coverage: DIRECT

The record is silent on the specific mechanisms by which the natural rights of the colonists should be protected or enforced, and on the extent to which these rights could be modified or limited by the British government.

Extrapolation: Samuel Adams believed that the natural rights of the colonists were fundamental and inalienable, including personal security, personal liberty, private property, life, liberty, and property. He argued that these rights were derived from the British constitution, common law, and acts of Parliament, and were essential to the colonists' identity as British subjects. He also believed that these rights could not be taken from the colonists without their consent and that the British government had a duty to protect these rights.

Competing readings: One reading is that Samuel Adams believed in the supremacy of the British constitution over natural rights, as evidenced by his belief that the constitution could not be altered by the supreme legislative without changing the constitution itself. Another reading is that he believed in the importance of working within the existing constitutional framework to secure natural rights, as evidenced by his belief in the value of the connection with Britain despite the perceived infringement on natural rights.

Confidence: High, as the record provides direct statements from Samuel Adams on the natural rights of the colonists and their derivation from the British constitution, common law, and acts of Parliament.