History of Liberty

Natural law does not depend directly on God’s will. Natural law goes back to at least the scholastics and perhaps Thomas Aquinas. Modern Natural Rights theory began in 1625. Modern theory recognizes the institution the state. Natural law is thought to produce inalienable natural rights. They speak to the dignity of the individual and life and property. The close connection between liberty and property is part of this tradition.

John Locke changed in 1689 the notions of the origin of private property. Locke’s doctrines became the basis of classical liberalism and libertarianism. The original acquisition had to be legitimate. Every man has a property in his own person. Self-ownership and homesteading were the foundation of private property. No natural rights are given up when individuals enter political society. You have the right to be protected by the government and the right to protect yourself from the government. You cannot divest yourself of these rights.

In 1982 The Ethics of Liberty by Murray Rothbard took up Natural Rights.

From the 2001 History of Liberty seminar.

Albion’s Seed is a great book about the four migration folkways into the colonies from Great Britain during 1629 through 1775. The groups had many characteristics in common which may be what made future union possible, but the groups were also different. Puritans hated Quakers. Everybody hated Catholics. The competing regional cultures created quite a laissez-faire outcome between the community-based groups and more individualistic groups.

The Revolution had been profoundly argued well in advance. It wanted to conserve the good things of their past British lives. In the 1830s disputes centered on the United States being either a compact school of independent states forming a confederation or a nationalist school of a single people in the aggregate. The British thought they were dealing with thirteen independent and sovereign states.

From the 2001 History of Liberty seminar.

This is a federal constitution. Federalism is the most important idea for liberty. You must maximize your choices and you need meaningful choices, made against a cultural background. Federalism requires such moral correctness that it makes it the most difficult system to maintain. Federalism always fights consolidation.

States had a positive duty to intervene between citizens and the central government when unconstitutional acts were attempted. The Principles of ‘98 (The Kentucky Resolutions) were used for interposition and nullification. The 10th Amendment was the foundation of America. States were sovereign. Each state knew that it had a right to secede from the Federal Constitution because there was no time limit, like ninety-nine years, placed upon the compact.

Federalism was never restored. The states all looked to the Federal level to see what their rights were. Centralization was the process of modernity.

From the 2001 History of Liberty seminar.

People learn their political views through what they believe about history. Memorials function to push certain interpretations, e.g. about the War Between the States and the greatness of rulers like Lincoln and FDR.

During the early 19th century Benjamin Constant was a great Swiss-French political activist and historian, but he was never as well-known as Alexis de Tocqueville. Constant was one of the first thinkers to go by the name of Liberal. Madame de Stael was Constant’s partner. Ancient Liberty was not fitted to the Liberty of the Moderns which was based on individual civil liberties.

Constant influenced a group called the Industrialists whose framework of history was the history of class conflict. Some classes like farmers and merchants were productive. Exploitive classes like the state used force to steal from the producers. Marx got the class conflict theory from these French classical liberals.

Alexis de Tocqueville often created conflicting positions. His famous two-volume work, Democracy in America (1835), described America as a land of ploughshares and Russia as a land of swords. America a land of freedom; Russia a land of servitude. He admired Christianity, but was not a believer.

Lord Acton was most famous for the remark, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.” Acton was an historian and a moralist. To him, natural rights came from God. Too many historians exonerate bad men. Acton said that this should not happen. The courageous historian will dig deeply and lay it all out.

From the 2001 History of Liberty seminar.

The opinion that is dished out in textbooks every year by academic historians is ideologically mostly left-liberalism or left-radicalism. The effect of this is to bias what is written, especially with recent events. The historians see class conflicts as driving forces.

They also see anything that is pro labor or against business as reform. Capitalism itself is seen as an unmitigated evil and all free markets are bad. Individualism is a code word for primitive people.

A few progressive episodes from our history included the fact that Colonists were not permitted to manufacture hats or iron products under the British mercantile system. Navigation Acts restricted commerce when they could be enforced.

Historians have looked at these activities with a cost-benefit view. They usually find neither great benefit nor great cost from colonies remaining part of the British system. Liberty was not considered. Desiring self-government didn’t enter their minds.

Historian Charles Beard’s 1913 interpretation of the making of the Constitution was not challenged until the 50’s and 60’s. Anti-Federalists were overlooked. Their fear of political centralization was not noted.

Hamilton got an excise tax passed on whiskey. Whiskey was a medium of exchange and a major source of calories. The Whiskey Rebellion in Western Pennsylvania was to show that the government was serious about collecting taxes. Washington was seen as a military nincompoop. He was also a notorious land grabber, almost single-handedly starting the French and Indian War. He betrayed private trust for his private gain.

Land policy became the central government action in US History. It was land policy that led to the War of Secession. It was not a moral question over slavery. Lincoln intended to guarantee slavery. Historians do not recognize the Constitutional shift that took place because of that war. The 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments put an end to thoughts of secession.

Progressivism is the most important event other than the Civil War in our history. It was a bridge to modern times. They intended to make government more active and powerful. They opposed classical liberals. They were going to set people free --- by force.

From the 2001 History of Liberty seminar.