Fast Eddie B
Philosopher
It is not nonsense.
"A free people [claim] their rights as derived from the laws of nature, and not as the gift of their chief magistrate." --Thomas Jefferson: Rights of British America, 1774. ME
"Under the law of nature, all men are born free, every one comes into the world with a right to his own person, which includes the liberty of moving and using it at his own will. This is what is called personal liberty, and is given him by the Author of nature, because necessary for his own sustenance." --Thomas Jefferson: Legal Argument, 1770. FE
"The evidence of [the] natural right [of expatriation], like that of our right to life, liberty, the use of our faculties, the pursuit of happiness, is not left to the feeble and sophistical investigations of reason, but is impressed on the sense of every man. We do not claim these under the charters of kings or legislators, but under the King of Kings." --Thomas Jefferson to John Manners, 1817. ME 15:124
"The Declaration of Independence... [is the] declaratory charter of our rights, and of the rights of man." --Thomas Jefferson to Samuel Adams Wells, 1819. ME 15:200
Those are nice finds. There may be quote mining involved, but at least they show Jefferson was aware of two kinds of rights, and seems to be saying one stems from the other.
When I mentioned that human rights can be of two kinds, natural vs legal, I didn’t mean to start a debate as to which was “better”, but just to point out that some of the disagreements about rights in this discussion were folks referring to one or the other type or right.