On the Liberty We Possess

This excerpt investigates the relationship between liberty and government. Sometimes powerful ideas are expressed in few words. Such is the case below.

August Glen-James, editor

If the Government is restrained form putting its hand in certain particulars upon you, to that extent you are free, and no more.

Daniel Webster declared that the quantity of liberty we possess is precisely equal to the quantity of restraint which we put upon the government. And this is the rule. If the Government is restrained from putting its hand in certain particulars upon you, to that extent you are free, and no more. All liberty, therefore, consists in putting such a restraint upon your government that it cannot touch your rights or your liberties.

—C. Chauncey Burr, excerpt from “History of the Union and of the Constitution”