By Victoria C. Woodhull
Our government is based upon this proposition: All men and women are born free and equal and entitled to certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. What we ask is simply that the government follow the spirit of this proposition. Nothing more, nothing less. If that proposition means anything, it means just what it says, without limitation. It means that every person is of equal right as an individual. Every person is free as an individual, and he or she is entitled to pursue happiness however he or she chooses. Now this is absolutely true of all men and all women. But just here some people stop and tell us that everybody must not pursue happiness in his or her own way. They say that to do so absolutely would be to have no protection against the action of an individual. These well-meaning people only see half of what is involved in the proposition. They look at a single individual and lose sight of all others. They do not think about how every other individual beside the one in question is equally due the same freedom. They do not consider how each is free within the area of his or her individual sphere. They do not recognize the fact that the moment one person gets out of his sphere and into the sphere of another, that other must protect him or herself against such an invasion of rights. To all such persons we assert: it is freedom and not despotism which we advocate, and we will demand that individuals be restricted to their freedom if it violates that of others.
If life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are inalienable rights in the individual, and government is based upon that inalienability, then it must follow that the functions of that government are to guard and protect the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, to the end that every person may have the most perfect exercise of them. And the most perfect exercise of such rights is only attained when every individual is not only fully protected in his rights, but also strictly restrained to the exercise of them within his own sphere, and prevented from proceeding beyond its limits, so as to encroach upon the sphere of another.
From these generalizations, certain specifications can be deduced, by which, all questions of rights must be determined:
1. Every living person has certain rights of which no law can rightfully deprive him.
2. Groups of persons form communities, who form governments to secure regularity and order.
3. Order and harmony can alone be secured in a community where every individual is fully protected in the exercise of all individual rights.
4. Any government which enacts laws to deprive individuals of the free exercise of their right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness is despotic. Therefore, such laws are not binding upon the people who protest against them, whether they be a majority or a minority.
5. When every individual is secure in the exercise of all his rights, then everyone is also secure from the interference of all other parties.
9
Which statement gives two central ideas from the passage?
A.
All people are basically the same, and the government must discourage individual differences.
B.
All people are entitled to the same freedom, and governments must protect everyone's freedom.
C.
All people are entitled to unlimited freedom, and governments must never limit anyone's freedom.
D.
All people are basically good, and the government must encourage individual expression.
1 answer
The statement that gives two central ideas from the passage is:
B. All people are entitled to the same freedom, and governments must protect everyone's freedom.
This choice reflects the core principles articulated by Victoria C. Woodhull in her speech, emphasizing both the equality of individual rights and the government's role in safeguarding those rights.
