A nation which strives for its liberty strives for a popular form of government, whether it be a constitutional kingly form or a democracy. But liberty is a specious word, often ill understood ; and many who have cried out for liberty have either not considered exactly what it is they want, or they have supposed that liberty would free them from many evils which they consider to be peculiar to a state of political slavery. It is now generally admitted, that in those states where a large part of the population have equal political knowledge with the few who direct administration, the general interests are best served by this large number participating in the government. Political liberty, then, to some extent or degree, is, in many countries, neces sary for securing the advantages of good administration. But there are many evils incident to states, which are not due to the want of political liberty ; and ,it is therefore a matter of importance for those who would make changes in government to consider whether the evils of which they complain are owing to a want of political liberty or to other causes.
The notion of political liberty has been based upon the analogy already pointed out between Political Liberty and Personal Liberty; which is a false analogy, though an historical one. Man, it has been assumed, is naturally free. No man is naturally or by nature another man's slave. As no man, it is said, is naturally a slave, so all mankind have naturally a right to political liberty, and just government, it is said, arises from the consent of the governed.
On these assumptions rests the American Declaration of Indepen dence: " We hold these truths to be self-evident : that all men are created equal ; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights"; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness ; that to secure these rights governments are instituted among men, deriving their joint powers from the consent of the governed," &c.
In this passage Liberty seems to mean the personal status, which is opposed to slavery ; and it is on the assumption of the equality by birth and the endowment of all men with certain inalienable rights, that this instrument would found the American title to Political LibCrty. It involves the doctrine of the social contract, and assumes, as an historical fact, an origin of governments by consent of the governed. It was also promulgated in a country in which a very large number of persons were then slaves, and in which a large number still are slaves.
If theories of governinent are to be tested by historical facts, it would be consistent with such facts to say, that men are not created equal ; that they have not been endowed with liberty, for a largo part of them have always been slaves ; and that governments have been constituted without the consent of the governed. These are real facts : those assumptions are untruths, Political liberty rests on no such sorry basis as the Declaration of Independence places it on. That nation which can obtain it and maintain it is in a better condition than if it were politically a slave even to the wisest of masters ; and when it is able to obtain and maintain that liberty, it is right, or in other words it is for the general interest, that a nation should, by force if necessary, alter that form of government which is political slavery.
That liberty promises to be most stable which is the growth of long time and the result of a perpetual struggle between a master and his slaves, in which the master has not ceased to be master all at once, but has always lost something in the contest.
That which is of sudden growth or is the offspring of Revolution, is often premature, and always insecure ; for liberty so acquired may only be a step from a state of political slavery to a more wretched state ; it may be a step from a state of slavery, mild and tolerable, to an anarchy, which of all things is most intolerable.
The words Liberty and Equality often go together, and each of them in so doubtful a sense that one hardly knows what to make of them. Liberty is often used, apparently without people considering what they really mean, in the sense of freedom from restraint. But this kind of Liberty is inconsistent with Political Liberty properly understood ; and all men's liberty of action is and must be restrained by positive laws in every well-ordered community. Every law that forbids any act directly or by implication abridges Liberty, and such abridgement is always a universal benefit when the law which so abridges liberty only abridges it in eases where it is useful to all that it should be abridged, and where the law is so framed as to accomplish that object. Equality, in its unlimited sense, can no more exist in any state than perfect individual liberty ; for if each man is left to exercise his industry in the best way that he can, without interfering directly with the industry of others, some will be richer, and happier, and wiser than others. The only Equality that can be approached to in a well-ordered state is that Equality which is the result of a good polity, which polity, so far as it is consistent with the universal good, secures alike to every individual in the State the free enjoyment of his industry, wealth, and talents, imposes restraint on all alike, and makes all alike bear the burden of taxation and of the services due to the State. Further, it gives to as large a number as it can, consistently with the universal interest, an equal share in the sovereign power ; but no polity that has ever yet been framed has ever given an equal share in the sovereign power to all the members of a community such an Equality is impossible.
The Declaration of Rights published by the French National Assembly in 1791 contains the words ." free," " equal," " rights," " liberty," and many others, all used in a manner as remote from precision as the most confused understanding could suggest. This strange sample of nonsense has been examined and dissected by Bentham in his 'Anarchical Fallacies.' The word Liberties is often used to express those particular con stitutional principles or fundamental laws by which the political liberty of a nation is secured. If the British parliament should attempt to abolish the Trial by Jury in all cases, or the Habeas Corpus, such an attempt would be called an attack on the liberties of Englishmen.
Liberty is also used in reference to the religious institutions of a state. Liberty of conscience properly implies that neither is coercion exercised upon, nor inducements offered to, nor disabilities imposed upon, the form of faith of any of the members of the state ; but generally in effect it is much more restricted, and the unimpeded exercise of the peculiar form of worship is all that is understood.