ALAN K. HENDERSON: Musings on the Declaration of Independence. “These ends are summarized as the rights to “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” To the untrained eye the last two may seem synonymous, but they speak of freedom from undue government coercion and freedom of peaceable individual initiative, respectively. The Declaration lists 27 grievances deemed serious enough to warrant the colonists to ‘throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.’ As I see it, they boil down to four basic principles.”