Nampa Classical Academy
Founders Views on Liberty
John Adams
Fisher Ames
Oliver Ellsworth
Benjamin Franklin Alexander Hamilton
Patrick Henry
Thomas Jefferson
John Madison Thomas Paine
George Washington
Jams Wilson Back to Founders Views John Adams
1765 - A Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law
"Liberty must at all hazards be supported. We have a right to it, derived from our Maker. But if we had not, our fathers have earned and bought it for us, at the expense of their ease, their estates, their pleasure, and their blood" (The Revolutionary Writings of John Adams, Thompson, ed. [28]).
1775 - letter to Abigail Adams
"But a Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever" (Adam's Family Correspondence, Butterfiled, ed. vol. 1 [241]).
1786 - letter to Count Sarsfield
"It has ever been my hobby-horse to see rising in America an empire of liberty, and a prospect of two or three hundred millions of freemen, without one noble or one king among them. You say it is impossible. If I should agree with you in this, I would still say, let us try the experiment, and preserve our equality as long as we can. A better system of education for the common people might preserve them long from such artificial inequalities as are prejudicial to society, by confounding the natural distinctions of right and wrong, virtue and vice" (Our Sacred Honor, Bennett, 264).
1797 - Inaugural Address
"In the midst of these pleasing ideas we should be unfaithful to ourselves if we should ever lose sight of the danger to our liberties if anything partial or extraneous should infect the purity of our free, fair, virtuous, and independent elections" (Inaugural Addresses of the Presidents of the United States).
1798-Address to the military
"We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for the government of any other."
Fisher Ames
1801 - Essay on Equality
"Liberty is not to be enjoyed, indeed it cannot exist, without the habits of just subordination; it consists, not so much in removing all restraint from the orderly, as in imposing it on the violent" (Works of Fisher Ames, W. B. Allen, ed., vol. 1 [256]).
Oliver Ellsworth
1787 - A Landholder, No. III
"Liberty is a word which, according as it is used, comprehends the most good and the most evil of any in the world. Justly understood it is sacred next to those which we appropriate in divine adoration; but in the mouths of some it means anything, which enervate a necessary government; excite a jealousy of the rulers who are our own choice, and keep society in confusion for want of a power sufficiently concentered to promote good" ( Essays on the Constitution of the United States, Ford, ed. (146); original The Connecticut Courant [Sheehan (4:4)]).
Benjamin Franklin
1759 - Historical Review of Pennsylvania
"They that can give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety" (The Works of Benjamin Franklin, Sparks, ed., vol. 3 [107]).
1777 - letter to Samuel Cooper
"[I]t is a common observation here that our cause is the cause of all mankind, and that we are fighting for their liberty in defending our own" (The Works of Benjamin Franklin, Bigelow, ed., vol. 7 [215]).
1783 - letter to Benjamin Vaughn
"Where liberty dwells, there is my country" (Respectfully Quoted, p. 201).
Alexander Hamilton
1774 - A Full Vindication of the Measures of the Congress, &c.
"No man in his senses can hesitate in choosing to be free, rather than a slave" (The Papers of Alexander Hamilton, Syrett, ed., vol. 1 [47]).
1790 - Report on a National Bank
"[H]owever weak our country may be, I hope we shall never sacrifice our liberties" (The Works of Alexander Hamilton, Henry Cabot Lodge, ed. [4]).
Patrick Henry
1788 - Speech to the Virginia Convention
"Is the relinquishment of the trial by jury and the liberty of the press necessary for your liberty? Will the abandonment of your most sacred rights tend to the security of your liberty? Liberty, the greatest of all earthly blessings - give us that precious jewel, and you may take every things else! Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect every one who approaches that jewel" ( respe. Quote).
Thomas Jefferson
1774 - Summary View of the Rights of British America
"The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time; the hand of force may destroy, but cannot disjoin them" (Jefferson: Writings, Peterson ed., Library of America [122]).
1775 - Declaration of the Causes and Necessities of Taking up Arms
"Honor, justice, and humanity, forbid us tamely to surrender that freedom which we received from our gallant ancestors, and which our innocent posterity have a right to receive from us. We cannot endure the infamy and guilt of resigning succeeding generations to that wretchedness which inevitably awaits them if we basely entail hereditary bondage on them" (Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789, Ford et al., ed., vol. 2 [154]).
1787 - letter to William Stephens Smith
"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure" (The Writings of Thomas Jefferson (Memorial Edition), Lipscomb and Bergh, eds., 6:373).
1791 - letter to Archibald Stewart
"I would rather be exposed to the inconveniencies attending too much liberty than those attending too small a degree of it" ( respec. Quote).
1820 - letter to Richard Rush
"The boisterous sea of liberty is never without a wave" (The Writings of Thomas Jefferson (Memorial Edition), Lipscomb and Bergh, eds., 15:283).
1821 - letter to John Adams
"I will not believe our labors are lost. I shall not die without a hope that light and liberty are on a steady advance" (Thomas Jefferson: The Apostle of Americanism, Chinard [517]; original The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Memorial Edition, Lipsco).
John Madison
1792 - National Gazette Essay
"In Europe, charters of liberty have been granted by power. America has set the example . . . of charters of power granted by liberty. This revolution in the practice of the world, may, with an honest praise, be pronounced the most triumphant epoch of its history, and the most consoling presage of its happiness" (Advice to My Country, Mattern ed. (20); original Papers of John Madison, vol. 14 [191]).
Thomas Paine
1791 - Dissertation on First Principles of Government
"He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself" ( resp. quoted).
George Washington
1783 - letter to the Reformed German Congregation of New York City
"The establishment of Civil and Religious Liberty was the Motive which induced me to the Field -- the object is attained -- and it now remains to be my earnest wish & prayer, that the Citizens of the United States could make a wise and virtuous use of the blessings placed before them" (George Washington: A Collection, W.B. Allen, ed. [271]).
1788 - letter to James Madison
"Liberty, when it begins to take root, is a plant of rapid growth" (George Washington: A Collection, W.B. Allen, ed. [386]).
1790 - letter to the people of South Carolina
"The value of liberty was thus enhanced in our estimation by the difficulty of its attainment, and the worth of characters appreciated by the trial of adversity" (Maxims of George Washington, Schroeder, ed. [16]; original The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Fitzpatrick, ed., vol. 31 [67]).
1796 - Farewell Address
"Interwoven as is the love of liberty with every ligament of your hearts, no recommendation of mine is necessary to fortify or confirm the attachment."
James Wilson
"Without liberty, law loses its nature and its name, and becomes oppression. Without law, liberty also loses its nature and its name, and becomes licentiousness" (The Works of James Wilson, McCloskey, ed., 72).
