Jefferson's Pre-Founding Case for Free Movement
Thomas Jefferson argued at length for free movement in a 1774 document, Antigone's essay notes; the essay calls it an unenumerated right, arguably the most “American” and most vexed of the natural rights recognized at the time of the Founding.
Few commentators have focused on it, the essay says.
Jefferson's purpose was to persuade the British Crown that the new civilization in America should be considered a distinct nation, possessed and governed by those who had emigrated to its shores.
AI-generated discussion · Different perspectives
The intriguing part is the audience: this is not an abstract right floating in a treatise but an argument aimed at the British Crown about who legitimately possessed America.
Careful: the argument was about the American colonies as a distinct nation, possessed and governed by those who had emigrated. That is a claim about legitimacy, not a general right to cross any border.