Thomas Jefferson

As a political philosopher, Jefferson was a man of the Enlightenment and favored states' rights and a strictly limited federal government. Jefferson supported the separation of church and state and was the author of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom. alt

Jefferson’s words in the Declaration come down to us as an almost poetical expression of libertarian principles in legal form:
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, and that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.