Laws of Nature—Liberty and Freedom

When our Founding Fathers spoke of liberty and freedom, they were not using empty phrases or emotional appeals. To them, these words described conditions grounded in natural law—the moral order woven into out world itself.

What Is Freedom?

In the eighteenth century, freedom meant the absence of restraint or domination. Noah Webster described it as “A state of exemption from the power or control of another.” Freedom is the ability to act without unjust interference.

But natural law teaches that freedom by itself is not the highest good. When freedom is separated from truth and virtue, it quickly turns into disorder and misuse.

The laws of nature—the unchanging principles governing how life and society work—show that freedom must walk hand in hand with moral responsibility. Only when people govern their actions by what is right do they preserve what is truly free.

The Meaning of Liberty

The word liberty has a meaning related to “free”—able to think and act independently, without arbitrary control. It also means release from slavery, imprisonment, or any unjust restraint.

The root of the word goes back to ideas of “belonging to the people” and “to rise or grow.” Liberty, then, is not only freedom from something but freedom for something—the freedom to live rightly and grow according to the moral order of nature.

Natural Liberty

Noah Webster defined natural liberty as “the power to act as one thinks fit, without restraint or control except from the laws of nature.”

An example helps clarify this idea. Here on Earth, we cannot leap sixty feet into the air because the law of gravity limits us—but within the bounds of that limit, we have the liberty to jump as high as our strength allows.

When a person lives alone, away from others, he may act largely according to his own will. But once people choose to live together in community, the idea of civil liberty begins.

Civil Liberty

The word civil comes from a Latin term meaning “city,” and refers to life among citizens in a society. Civil liberty means the freedom of individuals within an organized community.

In civil life, society limits certain aspects of natural liberty—the right to act however one pleases—in order to secure the safety and equal rights of all.

True liberty in society, therefore, includes lawful restraint. Each person’s freedom must be restrained so that it does not harm or hinder the freedom of another.

When government imposes unnecessary restrictions that do not serve the public good, that is not liberty; it is oppression.

Real Liberty

Real liberty means that people understand their rights and can trust that those rights will be protected. Our Constitution serves this purpose, establishing laws that uphold both personal freedom and the common good.

Dave Kluge
www.understandtheconstitution.com

Author of The People’s Guide to the United States Constitution.

The book presents the original texts of the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, Bill of Rights and all amendments, with enough background, examples, and definitions to easily understand and read straight through these documents.