<P> The distinction between alienable and unalienable rights was introduced by Francis Hutcheson . In his Inquiry into the Original of Our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue ( 1725 ) , Hutcheson foreshadowed the Declaration of Independence , stating : `` For wherever any Invasion is made upon unalienable Rights , there must arise either a perfect , or external Right to Resistance ... Unalienable Rights are essential Limitations in all Governments . '' Hutcheson , however , placed clear limits on his notion of unalienable rights , declaring that `` there can be no Right , or Limitation of Right , inconsistent with , or opposite to the greatest publick Good . '' Hutcheson elaborated on this idea of unalienable rights in his A System of Moral Philosophy ( 1755 ) , based on the Reformation principle of the liberty of conscience . One could not in fact give up the capacity for private judgment ( e.g. , about religious questions ) regardless of any external contracts or oaths to religious or secular authorities so that right is `` unalienable . '' Hutcheson wrote : `` Thus no man can really change his sentiments , judgments , and inward affections , at the pleasure of another ; nor can it tend to any good to make him profess what is contrary to his heart . The right of private judgment is therefore unalienable . '' </P>
whose new political ideas of natural rights influenced the declaration of independence
Francis Hutcheson