Chamblee54

There is a meme floating around. “THE U.S. CONSTITUTION DOESN’T GUARANTEE HAPPINESS, ONLY THE PURSUIT OF IT. YOU HAVE TO CATCH UP WITH IT YOURSELF. – BENJAMIN FRANKLIN – PLEASE SHARE Freedom Works”
Luther Mckinnon Do you have a source for that quote? It is not shown in wikiquotes.
*Meme Poster* Luther. If you Google: Benjamin Franklin quote “the Constitution doesn’t guarantee hapiness”. You’ll find a bunch of websites devoted to famous quotes. Personally I don’t like Wikipedia. They leave out a lot of information
Luther Mckinnon The problem is that many quote websites do not provide a source. Many of the quotes are erroneous. Yes, wikiquotes is not an authoritative source. However, if they do not list the quote, that is an indication that perhaps the quote is not genuine.
Luther Mckinnon After I made the post above, I highlighted the phrase “Benjamin Franklin quote “the Constitution doesn’t guarantee hapiness” (BTW, happiness is spelled with two p’s. You need a pp to have happiness.) Anyway, I right clicked, and went to google search. I found this link. The money quote: “The quote is a fake. Benjamin Franklin never said this.”
It turns out that “pursuit of happiness” is in the Declaration of Independence, not the Constitution. Of course, Mr. Franklin was getting old by the time of the Constitutional Convention. He may have gotten things mixed up. It is not known whether the phrase “catch up” was used in the eighteenth century. Maybe Mr. Franklin meant mustard.
Ben Franklin was present at both the Continental Congress, and the Constitutional Convention. He signed both documents. The Declaration of Independence was written by Thomas Jefferson. He was the United States Ambssador to France when the Constitutional Convention was held. During this time, Mr. Jefferson was engaged in the pursuit of Sally Hemmings.
Another indication that the meme is phony is the connection to Freedom Works. In the meme comments, even Freedom Watchers seemed to know the difference between the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution. Pictures today are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”.
UPDATE:*Meme Poster* Luther Mckinnon, thank you for taking something that was meant to be inspirational and stomping on it. *Meme Poster* unfriended Luther Mckinnon.