Freedom and Liberty Defined
LIBERTY - (Lat. liber, free; libertas, freedom, liberty). Freedom from restraint. The faculty of willing, and the power of doing what has been willed, without influence from without.
liberty, n. {OFr.liberte; L. libertas (-atis),
freedom, from liber, free.}
1. freedom or release from slavery, imprisonment, captivity, or any other form
of arbitrary control.
[Webster's New Twentieth Century Dictionary 2nd Ed.
(1993)]
Natural liberty is the right which nature gives to all mankind of
disposing of their persons and property after the manner they judge most
consistent with their happiness, on condition of their acting within the limits
of the law of nature and so as not to interfere with an equal exercise of the
same rights by other men. 1 Bla.Com. 125. - Ibid.
[Webster's New Twentieth Century Dictionary 2nd Ed.
(1993)]
"The natural liberty of man is to be free from any superior power
on Earth, and not to be under the will or legislative authority of man, but only
to have the law of nature for his rule."
[Samuel Adams]
"Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will
within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add
'within the limits of the law' because law is often but the tyrant's will, and
always so when it violates the rights of the individual."
[Thomas
Jefferson]
Personal liberty consists in the power of locomotion, of changing
situation, of removing one's person to whatever place one's inclination may
direct, without imprisonment or restraint unless by due course of law.
[1 Blackstone's Commentaries 134; Hare, Constitution__. 777; Bouvier's Law
Dictionary, 1914 ed.]
"Civil
liberty. The liberty of a member of society, being a man's natural liberty, so
far restrained by human laws (and no further) as is necessary and expedient for
the general advantage of the public. 1 B1.Comm. 125. The power of doing whatever
the laws permit. 1 B1.Comm. 6. The greatest amount of absolute liberty which
can, in the nature of things, be equally possessed by every citizen in a state.
Guaranteed protection against interference with the interests and rights held
dear and important by large classes of civilized men, or by all the members of a
state, together with an effectual share in the making and administration of the
laws, as the best apparatus to secure that protection. See Civil rights. "
[Black's Law Dictionary, 5th ed.]
"We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect
union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common
defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of
liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this
Constitution for the United States of America."
[Preamble to the
U.S. Constitution]
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created
equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable
rights, that among these are life, liberty,
and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are
instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the
governed, that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these
ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute
new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its
powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety
and happiness."
[The Declaration of Independence (1776)]
"Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty
when the Government's purposes are benificient....The greatest dangers to liberty
lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without
understanding."
[Justice Brandeis in Olmstead v. U.S., 277 US 438, 479
(1927)]
"Those who framed our Constitution and the Bill of Rights were ever
aware of subtle encroachments on individual liberty.
They knew that 'illegitimate and unconstitutional practices get their first
footing.... by silent approaches and slight deviations from legal modes of
procedure.'"
[Boyd v. United States, 116 US 616, 635, 29 L.Ed. 746, (1886)]
"The history of liberty has largely been the
history of the observance of procedural safeguards."
[Justice Felix
Frankfurter in McNabb v. U.S., 318 US 332, 347 (1943)]
"Procedural fairness and regularity are of the indispensible essence of liberty."
[Justice Robert Jackson in Shaughnesy v. U.S., 345 US 206, 224]
"Whatever 'liberty' may mean today, the liberty
guaranteed by our bill of rights is a reservation to the individual of certain
fundamental reasonable expectations involved in life in civilized society and a
freedom from arbitrary and unreasonable exercise of the power and authority of
those who are designated or chosen in a politically organized society to adjust
relations and order conduct, and so are able to apply the force of that society
to individuals. Liberty under law implies a systematic
and orderly application of that force so that it is uniform, equal, and
predictable, and proceeds from reason and upon understood grounds rather from
caprice or impulse or without full and fair hearing of all affected and
understanding of the facts on which official action is taken."
[Roscoe Pound
- "The Development of Constitutional Guarantees of Liberty", Pg. 1]
"They that can give up essential liberty to
obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
[Benjamin Franklin]
FREE
free, a.; {ME. free, freo; AS. freo,
frio, frig, free.}
1. (a) not under the control of some other person or some arbitrary power; able
to act or think without compulsion or arbitrary restriction; having liberty;
independent; (b) characterized by or resulting from liberty.
2. (a) having, or existing under a government that does not impose arbitrary
restrictions on the right to speak, assemble, petition, vote, etc.; having
political liberty; as a free people; (b) not
under control of a foreign government.
3. able to move in any direction; not held, as in chains, etc.; not kept from
motion; loose.
4. not held or confined by a court, the police, etc.; acquitted.
5. not held or burdened by obligations, debts, discomforts, etc.; unhindered;
unhampered.
6. not confined to the usual rules or patterns; not limited by convention or
tradition......
[Webster's New Twentieth Century Dictionary 2nd Ed. (1983)]
FREEDOM
"If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude
better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask
not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May
your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget ye were our
countrymen."
[Samuel Adams]
"The only freedom which deserves the name is that of pursuing our own
good in our own way, so long as we do not attempt to deprive others, or impede
their efforts to obtain it. Each is the proper guardian of his own health
whether bodily, mental, or spiritual. Mankind are greater gainers by suffering
each other to live as seems good to the rest."
[John Stuart Mill
"On Liberty"]
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