America the Beautiful: Inalienable or Unalienable Rights, which is it?

"We can never be sure that the opinion we are endeavoring to stifle is a false opinion; and if we were sure, stifling it would be an evil still." ~John Stuart Mill, On Liberty, 1859

This post came about because I lost a Facebook friend, (who I discovered actually blocked me) due to my views and speech about the status of our country and our current administration. I started to think how sad it was that my freedom of speech so offended her that she had to not only unfriend me but block herself from me.

Hmm should we begrudge one another's freedom of speech? What if we unfriended everyone with opposing views to ours?

I am glad I have many more FB friends that grant me my freedom of speech and still choose to be my friend.

This leads me to... Freedom of Speech, is it an unalienable right or an inalienable right?

I have been thinking for awhile about our inalienable rights...or wait is it unalienable. I'm confused.

So I looked at the Declaration of Independence and it says "unalienable". I continued with some more internet research on both of these words because it is not clear in my mind what is their difference, particularly in relation to the principles laid down by the Founding Fathers.

How many of us stop to think about what they mean, is the meaning different, what rights do we actually have as given by our Declaration of Independence?

I would like to share with you some of my research.

I always start with a definition, these were found online:

Inalienable: not able to be transferred to another;

Unalienable: incapable of being repudiated or transferred to another

This definition sounds the same to me, are they interchangeable.

The Declaration of Independence says:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

Hmm they used unalienable.

Well, after visiting some sites I have found that Jefferson's draft of the Declaration used "inalienable" rights, when it was published they decided to use "unalienable". A side note, at the Jefferson Memorial in Washington DC they used "inalienable". Hmm is there a message there?

Further research:

From this webpage on unalienable (http://www.gemworld.com/USA-Unalienable.htm)

The natural rights of life and liberty are UNALIENABLE. Bouviers Law Dictionary 1856 Edition

"Unalienable: incapable of being alienated, that is, sold and transferred." Black's Law Dictionary, Sixth Edition, page 1523:

Inalienable rights: Rights which are not capable of being surrendered or transferred without the consent of the one possessing such rights. Morrison v. State, Mo. App., 252 S.W.2d 97, 101.

I found that the word inalienable is used more today that during the Founding Father's time. At that time "unalienable" was used more often. One thought is that the changes to the original draft might have been in part because they wanted to choose words more familiar to their readers. That makes sense.

As we learn about our Founding Fathers we need to understand their thinking and their thought processes behind the documents that first established our country.

I agree with this statement from the website below:

"This little discrepancy between unalienable and inalienable rights is perhaps the most serious problem not currently being dealt with today. It is probably the very reason that our Constitution and especially the Bill Of Rights has been under almost constant assault for a very long time. Look at how easily inattention to language and true knowledge of meaning began to set us up for so many things that would lead to our current crisis."

This site I think explains the difference better than I.

Click here