One phrase associated with America’s Declaration of Independence—”the pursuit of happiness”—has long been something of a sticking point in any discussion of what our unalienable rights really are. Here, LIFE.com recalls a feature that ran in LIFE magazine seven long decades ago, when the editors convened a round table of heavy thinkers to tackle the slippery question: What does the “pursuit of happiness” actually mean?
Rather than reprinting the entire article, however, we’ve chosen to focus on one engaging visual aspect of the feature—namely, 20 photographs, all of them made by one well-known LIFE photographer, that capture the face of happiness in many of its various guises. As LIFE wrote in that July 12, 1948, issue, the pictures are emblems of “some happy moments that Alfred Eisenstaedt photographed over a number of years. . . . In a casual way they illustrate the great scope of the American pursuit of happiness—ranging from religious dedication and honors on the college campus to beauty contests and touchdowns.”
It is asserted in the Declaration of Independence that men are endowed with three “unalienable rights”—Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. The first two terms of this remarkable formula are familiar enough; but the third term, the Pursuit of Happiness, is much more difficult to grasp. Not only is it unique within the American system, it has received relatively little attention from political theorists. So the question arises: What does the Third Right mean? Few really know.
Can the Third Right really be applied in our time? Do we know how to use it? Are we exercising it in such a way as to build a better society? Or are we, through carelessness or selfishness, pursuing happiness so as to corrupt and undermine the great heritage that Jefferson left us when he helped found our democracy?
Alex Lindsay Jr., 10, who plays football for the Wolf Pack Club, Denver, Colo., 1939.Alfred Eisenstaedt—Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesDaughters of the American Revolution convention, Atlanta, 1948.Alfred Eisenstaedt—Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesHoward University cheerleader Alfreda Young, 1948.Alfred Eisenstaedt—Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesLittle girl and her toys on sidewalk, 1948.Alfred Eisenstaedt—Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesStudents attend services at the General Theological Seminary of the Episcopal Church, New York, 1939.Alfred Eisenstaedt—Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesKay Lindsay vacationing, 1941.Alfred Eisenstaedt—Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesBob Esbenshade holds a pair of Hampshire piglets on a farm in Lancaster County, Pa., 1943.Alfred Eisenstaedt—Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesLong Island teenagers Jane Fest and Irma Olswang receive flowers to wear to formal dress Christmas party, 1943.Alfred Eisenstaedt—Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesEnglish major Helen Johnson, 18, a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority and a junior at the University of Kansas, 1939.Alfred Eisenstaedt—Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesSeven-year-old Billy Mott licks postal stamps in to his Savings Bond book, 1948.Alfred Eisenstaedt—Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesThe Winkles and their dog Witey, Hamilton, Ohio, 1943.Alfred Eisenstaedt—Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesSmith College coed Ann Teal wearing her hair in pigtails, 1941.Alfred Eisenstaedt—Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesCoed Merrilyn Olson and date Brooks Conrad watching Wisconsin-Marquette football game, 1939.Alfred Eisenstaedt—Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesTwo debutantes making their debut at cotillion at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, New York, 1946.Alfred Eisenstaedt—Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesMiss America pageant winner Bess Myerson, 1945.Alfred Eisenstaedt—Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesA sailor talks to a loved one from a GI phone center in Times Square, 1944.Alfred Eisenstaedt—Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesSteelworker Andy Lopata, 1946.Alfred Eisenstaedt—Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesWaterbury Dancing School, Conn., 1945.Alfred Eisenstaedt—Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesPrivate Charles Accordino and bride Mary Herrick at the New York Marriage License Bureau, 1943.Alfred Eisenstaedt—Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesCool drink of water, 1947.Alfred Eisenstaedt—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
