• The Magna Carta (To be posted)
• Virginia's Act for establishing religious freedom (1786)
• The American Declaration of Independence (1776)
• The Republic of France: Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen (1789)
• The ratification debate over the US Constitution's 'no religious test' clause in Article VI (1787-1790)
• The United States Constitution (1787) and Bill of Rights (1791)
• The Geneva Conventions (19th and 20th centuries) (To be posted) 
• American president commits the US to seek the essential Four Freedoms – "everywhere in the world" (1941) as World War II engulfs the planet.
• The president follows up with a concrete call for "a second Bill of Rights" in the closing days of World War II (1944)
• The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948)
• The Geneva Convention on Prevention of Genocide (1948) (To be posted)

On justice:
   "I am conscious that an equal division of property is impracticable. But the consequences of this enormous inequality producing so much misery to the bulk of mankind, legislatures cannot invest too many devices for subdividing property, only taking care to let their subdivisions go hand in hand with the natural affections of the human mind. . . . Another means of silently lessening the inequality of property is to exempt all from taxation below a certain point, and to tax the higher portions of property in geometrical progression as they rise [i.e., a progressive income tax]. Whenever there is in any country, uncultivated lands and unemployed poor, it is clear that the laws of property have been so far extended as to violate natural right. The earth is given as a common stock for man to labor and live on [cf. the idea of 'the (shared) commons' in English common law]" (The papers of Thomas Jefferson, 8: 681-683).

Thomas Jefferson
(1743-1846)

Co-Author of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom (1763)
Author of the American Declaration of Independence (1776)

The 3rd President of the United States 
(1801-1809)

On the religious right-wing theocrats of his day during the 1800 election:
   "They [the Philadelphia clergy] believe that any portion of power confided in me, will be exercised in opposition to their schemes. And they believe rightly: for I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man. But this is all they have to fear from me: and enough too in their opinion." (Italics indicate words engraved on the Jefferson Memorial, Washington, DC: From a letter to Benjamin Rush, during the furious and slanderous attacks by Philadelphia's clergy upon him in the election year of 1800).

"....in matters of religion no man's right is abridged by the institution of civil society, and that religion is wholly exempt from its cognizance." 

   "Because it is proper to take alarm at the first experiment upon our liberties. We hold this prudent jealousy to the first duty of citizens, and one of the noblest characteristics of the late [American] Revolution. The freemen of America did not wait until usurped power had strengthened itself by exercise, and entangled the question in precedents. They saw all the consequences in the principle, and they avoided the consequences by denying the principle. We revere this lesson too much to soon forget it. Who does not see that the same authority which can establish Christianity, in exclusion of all other religions, may establish, with the same ease, any particular sect of Christianity, in exclusion of all other sects? that the same authority which can force a citizen to contribute threepence only, of his property, for the support of any one establishment, may force him to conform to any other establishment in all cases whatsoever?" (Emphasis supplied)

    “In the future days which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms. The first is freedom of speech and expression – everywhere in the world.

The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way – everywhere in the world.

The third is freedom from want, which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants – everywhere in the world.

The fourth is freedom from fear, which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor – anywhere in the world.”

The Second Bill of Rights 

From the 'State of the Union' Address to the 79th Congress of the United States, 
January 11, 1944, in the closing days of World War II:

“This Republic had its beginning, and grew to its present strength, under the protection of certain inalienable political rights – among them the right of free speech, free press, free worship, trial by jury, freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures. They were our rights to life and liberty. 

We have come to a clear realization of the fact, however, that true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. 'Necessitous men are not free men.' People who are hungry, people who are out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made. 

In our day these economic truths have become accepted as self-evident. We have accepted, so to speak, a second Bill of Rights under which a new basis of security and prosperity can be established for all – regardless of station, or race or creed. 

Among these are: 

• The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries, or shops or farms or mines of the nation; 
• The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation; 
• The right of (every) farmers to raise and sell their (his) products at a return which will give them (him) and their (his) families (family) a decent living; 
• The right of every business man, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad; 
• The right of every family to a decent home; 
• The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health; 
• The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, and sickness, and accident and unemployment; 
• And finally, the right to a good education. 

America's own rightful place in the world depends in large part upon how fully these and similar rights have been carried into practice for all our citizens. For unless there is security here at home there cannot be lasting peace in the world. 

One of the great American industrialists of our day – a man who has rendered yeoman service to his country in this crisis – recently emphasized the grave dangers of 'rightist reaction' [i.e., right-wing reaction] in this Nation. Any clear-thinking business men share that (his) concern. Indeed, if such reaction should develop – if history were to repeat itself and we were to return to the so-called "normalcy" of the 1920's – then it is certain that even though we shall have conquered our enemies on the battlefields abroad, we shall have yielded to the spirit of fascism here at home. 

I ask the Congress to explore the means for implementing this economic bill of rights – for it is definitely the responsibility of the Congress so to do, and the country knows it. Many of these problems are already before committees of the Congress in the form of proposed legislation. I shall from time to time communicate with the Congress with respect to these and further proposals. In the event that no adequate program of progress is evolved, I am certain that the Nation will be conscious of the fact. 

Our fighting men abroad – and their families at home – expect such a program and have the right to insist on (upon) it. It is to their demands that this Government should pay heed, rather than to the whining demands of selfish pressure groups who seek to feather their nests while young Americans are dying. 

I have often said that there are no two fronts for America in this war. There is only one front. There is one line of unity that (which) extends from the hearts of (the) people at home to the men of our attacking forces in our farthest outposts. When we speak of our total effort, we speak of the factory and the field and the mine as well as (of) the battlefield (ground) – we speak of the soldier and the civilian, the citizen and his Government. 

Each and every one of them (us) has a solemn obligation under God to serve this Nation in its most critical hour – to keep this Nation great – to make this Nation greater in a better world.”

   “We think the action of the local authorities in compelling the flag salute and pledge transcends constitutional limitations on their power and invades the sphere of intellect and spirit which it is the purpose of the First Amendment to our Constitution to reserve from all official control.”

(1892-1954)
US Supreme Court Justice
Prosecutor at Nuremberg trials (1946)

   “We stand today at the threshold of a great event both in the life of the United Nations and in the life of mankind. This declaration may well become the international Magna Carta for all men everywhere. We hope its proclamation by the General Assembly will be an event comparable to the proclamation in 1789 [of the French Declaration of the Rights of Man], the adoption of the Bill of Rights by the people of the U.S., and the adoption of comparable declarations at different times in other countries...”

  “I believe in an America that is officially neither Catholic, Protestant nor Jewish – where no public official either requests or accepts instructions on public policy from the Pope, the National Council of Churches or any other ecclesiastical source – where no religious body seeks to impose its will directly or indirectly upon the general populace or the public acts of its officials – and where religious liberty is so indivisible that an act against one church is treated as an act against all.”

  “....For, in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's future. And we are all mortal.”