On Liberty
Originally Published in the Kansas County Comment – August 2017
The Revolutionary War has long held my attention. In adulthood, I have read more on that era—particularly about Thomas Jefferson—than any other subject. I now find myself reading a book on the Marquis de Lafayette, who is often billed as the first American rock star. Perhaps it is only in my world of history that Lafayette makes the cut as a rock star, but I’ll take George, John, Tom, and the Marquis over John, Paul, George, and Ringo any day.
The reason the Revolutionary War attracts me is that not only were the military leaders men of action, but they were philosophers, too. Though I have a number of family members who served in the military, I have not personally served. This makes it more difficult to comprehend the experiences that our servicemen and women undergo. But thinking about the ideas the motivated the Founding Fathers—often concepts I consider while with while working on legislation—gives me insight into their experiences and motivations.
One concept I have been contemplating recently is liberty. After a family trip to New York City last fall, my wife and I bought our daughters the children’s book “Lady Liberty's Holiday,” by Jen Arena, which imagines the Statue of Liberty taking a stroll across the country to see our nation’s sights. During a recent reading, I considered the name “Lady Liberty” and the gorgeous gift from France. This—coupled with my biography of Lafayette—had me reflecting on what liberty meant to the Founders during our county’s formative years.
The English language adopted the term “liberty” in the 1300s from the French term “liberte” and the Latin term “libertatem.” The root words use concepts like freedom, absence of restraint, and freedom from despotic rule to define the word.[1] It is also these concepts that shaped how the Founders used the word.
Here are some of the quotes that grabbed my attention, and the language they used still inspires today:
No free government, or the blessings of liberty, can be preserved to any people, but by a firm adherence to justice, moderation, temperance, frugality and virtue, and by frequent recurrence to fundamental principles. –George Mason in Virginia’s Declaration of Rights[2]
[W]ithout virtue there can be no liberty, and liberty is the object and life of all republican governments.[3] –Benjamin Rush in Of the Mode of Education Proper in a Republic
Our liberty depends on our education, our laws and habits…it is founded on morals and religion, whose authority reigns in the heart; and on the influence all these produce on public opinion before that opinion governs rulers.[4] –Fisher Ames in his Eulogy of George Washington in 1800
Fisher Ames may not make the cut as a Founding Father, but he was a contemporary of the era and a leader from Massachusetts. He and the Founders echoed a sentiment of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who declared “A country cannot subsist well without liberty, nor liberty without virtue.”[5] While not specifically mentioning liberty, Samuel Adams predicted that “men will be free no longer then while they remain virtuous.”[6] While there may have been different ideas on what liberty and freedom meant to our nation’s early leaders, it seems virtue had a close connection to preserving the privilege of liberty.
People across this county have different visions and ideas of what constitutes liberty. In his book, Albion's Seed: Four British Folkways in America, Dr. David Hackett Fischer explored different regions in America and what shaped the geographic trends in defining liberty.[7] Hackett looked at four different migrations that created folkways in America—the habits and customs that shape a society.[8] He notes that many of the groups had much commonality—largely that of British protestants. But they also had distinct dialects and ways of conducting day-to-day living. Even more, each group tended to view freedom in a different manner.[9]
Those who migrated to New England largely possessed Puritan roots. For this group, liberty focused less on the individual and more on the group—the idea of the collective. The group who populated Virginia was focused on the ability to self-rule. The Pennsylvania settlers had a larger number of Quakers, and freedom meant a liberty of conscience and the ability to practice religion freely. This was a freedom the group wanted for all, which led to a strong anti-slavery movement. The final group from Scotland and the borderlands of Britain brought a sense of libertarianism and individual freedom that differed still from the other groups.
It was not that these definitions of liberty were universal for each location, but they reflect the idea that Americans viewed the idea of liberty differently—all while claiming a deep respect and ownership of the freedom as they defined it. And it was that devotion to liberty that perhaps is the binding characteristic of this country.
This may seem broad, academic, and high-brow writing for the County Comment. But the rancor in Washington makes me all the more grateful for the efforts at the local level to govern well and responsibly. It is daunting to imagine steps that would instill civility and effectiveness into the federal level. Yet I am confident and hopeful that our county leaders will keep modeling the words and conduct—perhaps with a dose of liberty and virtue--that we hope to see from all our leaders.
Citations
[1] Liberty, Dictionary Entry, Online Etymology Dictionary. Available at: www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=liberty&allowed_in_frame=0.
[2] George Mason. The Virginia Declaration of Rights (1776). Available at: www.archives.gov/founding-docs/virginia-declaration-of-rights
[3] Benjamin Rush. The Selected Writings of Benjamin Rush. Edited by Dagobert D. Runes (1947). Available at: www.press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/v1ch18s30.html.
[4] Fisher Ames. Eulogy on Washington (1800). Available at: www.archive.org/details/worksfisherames00amesrich.
[5] Tryon Edwards. A Dictionary of Thoughts: Being a Cyclopedia of Laconic Quotations from the Best Authors of the World, Both Ancient and Modern (1927). Available at: www.archive.org/details/newdictionaryoft1927edwa (page 338).
[6] Samuel Adams. The Writings of Samuel Adams. Edited by Harry Alonzo Cushing (1904). Available at: www.press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/print_documents/v1ch18s14.html.
[7] Robert Siegel. Founding Fathers Defined Freedom Differently (2012) (referencing Albion's Seed by David Hackett Fischer). Available at: www.npr.org/2012/07/04/156258435/founding-fathers-defined-freedom-differently.
[8] William Graham Sumner Folkways: A Study of the Sociological Importance of Usages, Manners, Customs, Mores, and Morals. Available at: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/24253/24253-h/24253-h.htm.
[9] David Hackett Fischer. Albion’s Seed: Four British Folkways in America. Taking Sides: Clashing Views in United States History, Volume 1: The Colonial Period to Reconstruction (2006). Essay available at: http://jessewoodsonjames.weebly.com/uploads/1/2/0/8/12083819/fischer-albionsseed.pdf.
