Randy E. Barnett (b.1952), in his book Restoring the Lost Constitution: The Presumption of Liberty, wrote that to early Americans, natural rights were liberty rights.  He wrote that “natural rights are the set of concepts that define the moral space within which persons must be free to make their own choices and live their own lives if they are to pursue happiness while living in society with others.”

He identified six basic natural rights: the right to worship according to conscience, the right to speech, the right to emigrate, the right to self-defense and property ownership, the right to alter or abolish an unjust government and the right to assemble.

All Americans have these rights despite intolerance demonstrated in the press.  These rights are based upon moral principles that founded our country.  They are American rights.  As natural rights, these ideas offer freedom and liberty to any nation that embraces them.  To read more about American history and the sequence of political ideologies that have influenced American politics, get a copy of Political Catsup with Economy Fries: Liberalism, Pragmatism, Opportunism, available at Amazon.com.