Description
Get our FREE Newsletter at https://www.PrometheanAction.com — In Promethean Action’s Weekly class (July 11, 2026), Judy Hodgkiss continues discussing her new book, The Right to Pursue Happiness, arguing the Declaration of Independence did not derive its core ideas from John Locke. After seeing Angel Studios’ film Young Washington, she focuses on a scene where Washington requests Alexander Pope’s Essay on Man from Lord Halifax, using it as evidence of Pope’s influence in the colonies. Judy presents Pope as a transmission link for Leibniz’s philosophy into America through Lord Bolingbroke, shaping the Declaration’s language—especially Jefferson’s draft change from “life, liberty, and property” to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” and the phrase “laws of nature and of nature’s God.” She contrasts Lockean, bank-centered oligarchical policy with Bolingbroke and Swift’s critiques, and previews next class on Leibniz, Bolingbroke’s French exile, and the Electress Sophie’s network.
👉🏻 Get Judy's Book, *The Right to Pursue Happiness: How Leibniz and Bolingbroke Shaped America's Founding Vision* https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0H63P77XB
00:00 Welcome and Book Intro
00:30 Young Washington Movie Spark
02:47 Essay on Man and Colonial Ideas
07:25 Washington Ambition and Culture
10:22 Leibniz on Art and Happiness
16:53 Declaration Draft and Pursuit
26:02 Locke and Oligarchy Critique
32:12 Swift Newton and Banking
41:05 Pope Lines Shaping Founders
53:20 Bolingbroke Inspires Pope
59:53 Next Class Sophie and Networks
01:07:49 Wrap Up and Teaser
Image credits:
George Washington
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Washington_1772.jpg
Portrait of Henry St John, Viscount Bolingbroke by W.T. Evy
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Henry_St_John,_Viscount_Bolingbroke.jpg
Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gottfried_Wilhelm_von_Leibniz_(2).jpg
Draft Declaration of Independence
Library of Congress
Electress Sophia (Sophie) of Hanover
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:German_School_-_Electress_Sophia_of_Hanover.png