Robin, I _think_ it was Howard Mumford Jones, in a book entitled The Pursuit of Happiness, who observed that in Jefferson's day the sense of "pursuit" was not a chasing after something - as in chasing after happiness - but rather "pursuit" more in the sense of pastime or activity, so that the sense of the phrase was akin to 'the enjoyment of happiness.' A pleasant thought for our multi-tasking age. When I checked the Library of Congress catalogue to help recollect the author, I also noticed a 1794 lecture on the Pursuit of Happiness by Caroline Robbins : I don't know the lecture, but her scholarship was splendid and well-informed and might be worth a look. In drafting the Declaration, Jefferson substituted the phrase for "property" in John Locke's trio: life, liberty, and property. All the best, Jon > Does anyone know what exactly "pursuit of hapiness" meant to the founding > fathers and people of the revolutionary era? I guess my larger question > is how > did the phrase come to be written into the Declaration of Independence? > > Thanks, > Robin Gabriel > Monticello Education Department > > Dr. Jon Kukla, Executive Vice-President Red Hill - The Patrick Henry National Memorial 1250 Red Hill Road Brookneal, Virginia 24528 www.redhill.org Phone 434-376-2044 or 800-514-7463 Fax 434-376-2647 - M. Lynn Davis, Office Manager - Karen Gorham, Associate Curator - Edith Poindexter, Curator