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Liberty

Posted: Fri Nov 24, 2017 7:01 am
by notmartha
The following describe “liberty” generally. Definitions of specific types of liberty will follow, as time allows.

BIBLE

“Liberty” as found in the King James Version of the Holy Bible
Liberty in KJV.pdf
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“Christ and Liberty” from The Christian Jural Society News by John William
Christ and Liberty.pdf
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Anti-Thought-Control Dictionary created by American Christian Ministries
http://benwilliamslibrary.com/dictionary_set.html
Liberty

CONTROLLED MEANING: A state of happy citizenship under a protective central government which grants its citizens freedom and protects them from all enemies domestic and foreign. The government of a free people permits them to have freedom of religion, speech, and association. Free people are allowed their own property and privacy. Liberty is the result of living under the rule of a group of lawmakers chosen by the voting populace.

TRUE MEANING: "Liberty" is freedom to do, and be accountable for, what you think is right. Liberty is living in a state of natural freedom. Man's natural freedom, under God, cannot be granted by a government — it can only be honored or violated! Therefore, anything called "liberty" that is granted by man, or man's government, is not truly liberty — IT IS LICENSE (permission to do something that would otherwise be illegal). License (privilege) can be granted by man. Freedom and liberty cannot.

Being able to vote for which group of men rule over you makes them no less your rulers. Men ruled by men are not free! Any government system which place men as rulers over other men is a system of slavery. Liberty is repugnant to such a government. Such governments usually rename "liberty" with ugly labels such as "anarchy," "rebellion," and "terrorism."

"Liberty" is when you don't depend upon a government to protect you or grant you anything. "Liberty" is when you are responsible for yourself and your property without interference from government.
God's Word is man's best definition of LIBERTY. Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." (2 Cor 3:17) "Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ has made you free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage." (Gal 5:1) "So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by THE LAW OF LIBERTY" (James 2:12).

DEFINITIONS

Webster’s Dictionary of the English Language, 1828
LIB'ERTY, noun [Latin libertas, from liber, free.]
1. Freedom from restraint, in a general sense, and applicable to the body, or to the will or mind. The body is at liberty when not confined; the will or mind is at liberty when not checked or controlled. A man enjoys liberty when no physical force operates to restrain his actions or volitions.
2. Natural liberty consists in the power of acting as one thinks fit, without any restraint or control, except from the laws of nature. It is a state of exemption from the control of others, and from positive laws and the institutions of social life. This liberty is abridged by the establishment of government.
3. Civil liberty is the liberty of men in a state of society, or natural liberty so far only abridged and restrained, as is necessary and expedient for the safety and interest of the society, state or nation. A restraint of natural liberty not necessary or expedient for the public, is tyranny or oppression. civil liberty is an exemption from the arbitrary will of others, which exemption is secured by established laws, which restrain every man from injuring or controlling another. Hence the restraints of law are essential to civil liberty.
The liberty of one depends not so much on the removal of all restraint from him, as on the due restraint upon the liberty of others.
In this sentence, the latter word liberty denotes natural liberty.
4. Political liberty is sometimes used as synonymous with civil liberty But it more properly designates the liberty of a nation, the freedom of a nation or state from all unjust abridgment of its rights and independence by another nation. Hence we often speak of the political liberties of Europe, or the nations of Europe.
5. Religious liberty is the free right of adopting and enjoying opinions on religious subjects, and of worshiping the Supreme Being according to the dictates of conscience, without external control.
6. Liberty in metaphysics, as opposed to necessity, is the power of an agent to do or forbear any particular action, according to the determination or thought of the mind, by which either is preferred to the other.
Freedom of the will; exemption from compulsion or restraint in willing or volition.
7. Privilege; exemption; immunity enjoyed by prescription or by grant; with a plural. Thus we speak of the liberties of the commercial cities of Europe.
8. Leave; permission granted. The witness obtained liberty to leave the court.
9. A space in which one is permitted to pass without restraint, and beyond which he may not lawfully pass; with a plural; as the liberties of a prison.
10. Freedom of action or speech beyond the ordinary bounds of civility or decorum. Females should repel all improper liberties.
To take the liberty to do or say any thing, to use freedom not specially granted.
To set at liberty to deliver from confinement; to release from restraint.
To be at liberty to be free from restraint.
Liberty of the press, is freedom from any restriction on the power to publish books; the free power of publishing what one pleases, subject only to punishment for abusing the privilege, or publishing what is mischievous to the public or injurious to individuals.
First occurrence in the Bible(KJV): Leviticus 25:10
Bouvier’s Law Dictionary, 1856
LIBERTY.
1. Freedom from restraint. The power of acting as one thinks fit, without any restraint or control, except from the laws of nature.
2. Liberty is divided into civil, natural, personal, and political.
Black’s Law Dictionary, 1st Edition, 1891
LIBERTY.
1. Freedom; exemption from extraneous control. The power of the will, in its moral freedom, to follow the dictates of its unrestricted choice, and to direct the external acts of the individual without restraint, coercion, or control from other persons.
2. The word also means a franchise or personal privilege, being some part of the sovereign power, vested in an individual, either by grant or prescription.
Black’s Law Dictionary, 2nd Edition, 1910
LIBERTY.

1. Freedom; exemption from extraneous control. The power of the will, in its moral freedom, to follow the dictates of its unrestricted choice, and to direct the external acts of the Individual without restraint, coercion, or control from other persons.

"Liberty," as used in the provision of the fourteenth amendment to the federal constitution, forbidding the states to deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law, includes, it seems, not merely the right of a person to be free from physical restraint, but to be free in the enjoyment of all his faculties in all lawful ways; to live and work where he will ; to earn his livelihood by any lawful calling ; to pursue any livelihood or avocation ; and for that purpose to enter into all contracts which may be proper, necessary, and essential to carrying out the purposes above mentioned.

2. The word also means a franchise or personal privilege, being some part of the sovereign power, vested in an individual, either by grant or prescription.
A Compilation of Words and Phrases Judicially Defined By The Supreme Court Of Georgia And The Court Of Appeals, 1910
LIBERTY.
Franchise—In general.—A franchise is a particular privilege or right granted by the sovereign power of a state to an individual or a number of individuals. In this sense “franchise” is a synonym for “liberty.” Central R. R. Co. v. The State, 54 Ga. 409.
Black’s Law Dictionary, 7th Edition, 1999
Liberty
1. Freedom from arbitrary or undue restraint, esp. by a government <give me liberty or give me death>.
2. A right, privilege, or immunity enjoyed by prescription or by grant; the absence of a legal duty imposed on a person <the liberties protected by the Constitution>.
WEX Legal Dictionary
Liberty
Freedom from restraint, slavery, or imprisonment, and the power to follow one's own will within the limits set by the law or society.

MAXIMS

Libertas inaestimabilis res est.
Liberty is an inestimable good.

Quotiens dubia interpretatio libertatis est, secundum libertatem respondendum erit.
Whenever there is a doubt between liberty and slavery, the decision must be in favor of liberty.


QUOTES

Marcus Tullius Cicero:
Liberty is rendered even more precious by the recollection of servitude.
Cervantes:
Liberty is one of the choicest gifts that heaven hath bestowed upon man, and exceeds in value all the treasures which the earth contains within its bosom, or the sea covers. Liberty, as well as honor, man ought to preserve at the hazard of his life, for without it life is insupportable.
Wendell Phillips:
No free people can lose their liberties while they are jealous of liberty. But the liberties of the freest people are in danger when they set up symbols of liberty as fetishes, worshipping the symbol instead of the principle it represents.
Learned Hand:
What do we mean when we say that first of all we seek liberty? I often wonder whether we do not rest our hopes too much upon constitutions, upon laws and upon courts. These are false hopes; believe me, these are false hopes. Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it; no constitution, no law, no court can even do much to help it… What is this liberty that must lie in the hearts of men and women? It is not the ruthless, the unbridled will; it is not the freedom to do as one likes. That is the denial of liberty and leads straight to its overthrow. A society in which men recognize no check on their freedom soon becomes a society where freedom is the possession of only a savage few -- as we have learned to our sorrow. What then is the spirit of liberty? I cannot define it; I can only tell you my own faith. The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure that it is right; the spirit of liberty is the spirit which seeks to understand the minds of other men and women; the spirit of liberty is the spirit which weighs their interests alongside its own without bias...
Thomas Jefferson:
God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion. The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions, it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. ... And what country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to the facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.
God who gave us life gave us liberty. And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure if we have removed their only firm basis: a conviction in the minds of men that these liberties are the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath? Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that His justice cannot sleep forever.
The boisterous sea of liberty is never without a wave.
The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.
Thomas Paine:
An avidity to punish is always dangerous to liberty. It leads men to stretch, to misinterpret, and to misapply even the best of laws. He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates his duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself.
Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.
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.
When men yield up the privilege of thinking, the last shadow of liberty quits the horizon.
Benjamin Franklin:
They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
Where liberty dwells, there is my country.
Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote!
If by the liberty of the press were understood merely the liberty of discussing the propriety of public measures and political opinions, let us have as much of it as you please: But if it means the liberty of affronting, calumniating and defaming one another, I, for my part, own myself willing to part with my share of it, whenever our legislators shall please so to alter the law and shall cheerfully consent to exchange my liberty of abusing others for the privilege of not being abused myself.
Samuel Adams:
If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or your arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen.
John Adams:
Statesmen, my dear Sir, may plan and speculate for liberty, but it is religion and morality alone, which can establish the principles upon which freedom can securely stand. The only foundation of a free Constitution is pure virtue, and if this cannot be inspired into our People in a greater Measure than they have it now, they may change their rulers and the forms of government, but they will not obtain a lasting liberty.
Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people, who have... a right, an indisputable, unalienable, indefeasible, divine right to that most dreaded and envied kind of knowledge, I mean the characters and conduct of their rulers.
Daniel Webster:
God grants liberty only to those who love it, and are always ready to guard and defend it.
The contest, for ages, has been to rescue Liberty from the grasp of executive power.
Liberty exists in proportion to wholesome restraint; the more restraint on others to keep off from us, the more liberty we have.
James Madison:
Liberty is to faction what air is to fire, an ailment without which it instantly expires. But it could not be less folly to abolish liberty, which is essential to political life, because it nourishes faction than it would be to wish the annihilation of air, which is essential to animal life, because it imparts to fire its destructive agency.
Alexander Hamilton:
The fundamental source of all your errors, sophisms, and false reasonings, is a total ignorance of the natural rights of mankind. Were you once to become acquainted with these, you could never entertain a thought, that all men are not, by nature, entitled to a parity of privileges. You would be convinced, that natural liberty is a gift of the beneficent Creator, to the whole human race; and that civil liberty is founded in that; and cannot be wrested from any people, without the most manifest violation of justice. Civil liberty is only natural liberty, modified and secured by the sanctions of civil society. It is not a thing, in its own nature, precarious and dependent on human will and caprice; but it is conformable to the constitution of man, as well as necessary to the well-being of society.
Robert G. Ingersoll:
What light is to the eyes – what air is to the lungs – what love is to the heart, liberty is to the soul of man. Without liberty, the brain is a dungeon, where the chained thoughts die with their pinions pressed against the hingeless doors
Mark Twain:
No man's life, liberty, or property are safe while the congress is in session.
Ludwig von Mises:
Government means always coercion and compulsion and is by necessity the opposite of liberty. Government is a guarantor of liberty and is compatible with liberty only if its range is adequately restricted to the preservation of economic freedom. Where there is no market economy, the best-intentioned provisions of constitutions and laws remain a dead letter.
Bertrand Barere de Vieuzac:
The tree of liberty could not grow were it not watered with the blood of tyrants.
Voltaire:
All men have equal rights to liberty, to their property, and to the protection of the laws.
William Lloyd Garrison:
Enslave the liberty of but one human being and the liberties of the world are put in peril.
John Milton:
Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau:
I prefer liberty with danger to peace with slavery.
Clarence S. Darrow:
You can only protect your liberties in this world by protecting the other man's freedom. You can only be free if I am free.
George Orwell:
If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.
Jonathan Swift:
Liberty of conscience is nowadays only understood to be the liberty of believing what men please, but also of endeavoring to propagate that belief as much as they can.

Personal Liberty

Posted: Fri Nov 24, 2017 7:21 am
by notmartha
Those turning from Christ’s perfect Law of Liberty to man’s arbitrary “liberty” will soon find how it can be changed and/or revoked with the stroke of a pen.

BIBLE

“Personal liberty” is not specifically mentioned in the KJV.


The Ministry of Intercession: A Plea for More Prayer, Andrew Murray
It is strange how believers sometimes think this life of dependence too great a strain, and a loss of our personal liberty. They admit a need of dependence, of much dependence, but with room left for our own will and energy. They do not see that even a partial dependence makes us debtors, and leaves us nothing to boast of. They forget that our relationship to God, and co-operation with Him, is not that He does the larger part and we the lesser, but that God does all and we do all—God all in us, we all through God. This dependence upon God secures our true independence; when our will seeks nothing but the Divine will, we reach a Divine nobility, the true independence of all that is created. He that has not seen this must remain a sickly Christian, letting self do part and Christ part. He that accepts the life of unceasing dependence on Christ, as life and health and strength, is made whole..
DEFINITIONS

Bouvier’s Law Dictionary, 1856
6. Personal liberty is the independence of our actions of all other will than our own. Wolff, Ins. Nat. §77. It consists in the power of locomotion, of changing situation, or removing one's person to whatever place one's inclination may direct, without imprisonment or restraint, unless by due course of law. 1 Bl. Com. 134.
Black’s Law Dictionary, 1st Edition, 1891, 2nd Edition, 1910
Personal Liberty.

The right or power of locomotion; of changing situation, or moving one’s person to whatsoever place one’s own inclination may direct, without imprisonment or restraint, unless by due course of law. 1 Bl. Comm. 134. See LIBERTY.
Liberty

Personal liberty consists in the power of locomotion, of changing situation, of removing one’s person to whatever place one’s in clination may direct, without imprisonment or restraint unless by due course of law. 1 Bl. Comm. 134.
The Century Dictionary, an Encyclopedic Lexicon of the English Language, 1895
Personal liberty

Freedom from restraint of the person.
Personal-liberty Laws

In U.S. hist., during the slavery period, laws passed by several Northern States, in order to secure to persons accused of being fugitive slaves the rights of trial by jury and of habeas corpus, which were refused to them by the fugitive-slave laws
Black’s Law Dictionary, 4th Edition, 1968
Personal Liberty

The right or power of locomotion; of changing situation, or moving one's person to whatsoever
place one's own inclination may direct, without imprisonment or restraint, unless by due course
of law. 1 Bl. Comm. 134. Civil Rights Cases, 3 S.Ct. 42, 109 U.S. 3, 27 L.Ed. 835; Pinkerton v.
Verberg, 78 Mich. 573, 44 N.W. 579, 7 L.R.A. 507, 18 Am.St.Rep. 473.
Liberty

Personal Liberty - The right or power of locomotion; of changing situation, or moving one's person to whatsoever place one's own inclination may direct, without imprisonment or restraint, unless by due course of law. 1 Bl. Comm. 134. Civil Rights Cases, 3 S.Ct. 42, 109 U.S. 3, 27 L.Ed. 835; Pinkerton v. Verberg, 78 Mich. 573, 44 N.W. 579, 7 L.R.A. 507, 18 Am.St.Rep. 473.

The "personal liberty" guaranteed by Const. U. S. Amend. 13 consists in the power of locomotion without imprisonment or restraint unless by due course of law, except those restraints imposed to prevent commission of threatened crime or in punishment of crime committed, those in punishment of contempts of courts or legislative bodies or to render their jurisdiction effectual, and those necessary to enforce the duty citizens owe in defense of the state to protect community against acts of those who by reason of mental infirmity are incapable of self-control. Ex parte Hudgins, 86 W.Va. 526, 103 S.E. 327, 329, 9 A.L.R. 1361.
Black’s Law Dictionary, 5th Edition, 1979
Personal liberty.

The right or power of locomotion; of changing situation, or moving one's person to whatsoever place one's own inclination may direct, without imprisonment or restraint, unless by due course of law. Civil Rights Cases, 109 U.S. 3, 3 S.Ct. 42. 27 L.Ed. 835.

The "personal liberty" guaranteed by Thirteenth Amend., U.S.Const., consists in the power of locomotion without imprisonment or restraint unless by due course of law, except those restraints imposed to prevent commission of threatened crime or in punishment of crime committed, those in punishment of contempts of courts or legislative bodies or to render their jurisdiction effectual, and those necessary to enforce the duty citizens owe in defense of the state to protect community against acts of those who by reason of mental infirmity are incapable of self-control.
Black’s Law Dictionary, 7th Edition, 1999
Personal Liberty

One’s freedom to do as one pleases, limited only by the government’s right to regulate the public health, safety, and welfare.

MISCELLANEOUS


16 C.J.S., Constitutional Law, Sect.202, p.987:
"Personal liberty, or the Right to enjoyment of life and liberty, is one of the fundamental or natural Rights, which has been protected by its inclusion as a guarantee in the various constitutions, which is not derived from, or dependent on, the U.S. Constitution, which may not be submitted to a vote and may not depend on the outcome of an election. It is one of the most sacred and valuable Rights, as sacred as the Right to private property ... and is regarded as inalienable."
11 Am.Jur. (1st) Constitutional Law, Sect.329, p.1135
“Personal liberty largely consists of the Right of locomotion — to go where and when one pleases — only so far restrained as the Rights of others may make it necessary for the welfare of all other citizens. The Right of the Citizen to travel upon the public highways and to transport his property thereon, by horsedrawn carriage, wagon, or automobile, is not a mere privilege which may be permitted or prohibited at will, but the common Right which he has under his Right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Under this Constitutional guarantee one may, therefore, under normal conditions, travel at his inclination along the public highways or in public places, and while conducting himself in an orderly and decent manner, neither interfering with nor disturbing another’s Rights, he will be protected, not only in his person, but in his safe conduct.”
State of the Union Address, Franklin D. Roosevelt, January 6, 1937
It is not enough that the wheels turn. They must carry us in the direction of a greater satisfaction in life for the average man. The deeper purpose of democratic government is to assist as many of its citizens as possible, especially those who need it most, to improve their conditions of life, to retain all personal liberty which does not adversely affect their neighbors, and to pursue the happiness which comes with security and an opportunity for recreation and culture
.


QUOTES


Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton:
Personal liberty is the paramount essential to human dignity and human happiness.
Calvin Coolidge:
Liberty is not collective, it is personal. All liberty is individual liberty.
John Hospers:
By far the most numerous and most flagrant violations of personal liberty and individual rights are performed by governments. The major crimes throughout history, the ones executed on the largest scale, have been committed not by individuals or bands of individuals but by governments, as a deliberate policy of those governments, that is, by the official representatives of governments, acting in their official capacity.
William Howard Taft:
Next to the right of liberty, the right of property is the most important individual right guaranteed by the Constitution and the one which, united with that of personal liberty, has contributed more to the growth of civilization than any other institution established by the human race.
Henry St. George Tucker:
To secure their enjoyment, however, certain protections or barriers have been erected which serve to maintain inviolate the three primary rights of personal security, personal liberty, and private property. These may in America be said to be: 1. The bill of rights and written constitutions ... 2. The rights of bearing arms -- which with us is not limited and restrained by an arbitrary system of game laws as in England, but is particularly enjoyed by every citizen, and is among his most valuable privileges, since it furnishes the means of resisting as a freeman ought, the inroads of usurpation.
Daniel Webster:
Where is it written in the Constitution, in what article or section is it contained, that you may take children from their parents and parents from their children, and compel them to fight the battles of any war in which the folly and wickedness of the government may engage itself? Under what concealment has this power lain hidden, which now for the first time comes forth, with a tremendous and baleful aspect, to trample down and destroy the dearest right of personal liberty? Who will show me any Constitutional injunction which makes it the duty of the American people to surrender everything valuable in life, and even life, itself, whenever the purposes of an ambitious and mischievous government may require it? ... A free government with an uncontrolled power of military conscription is the most ridiculous and abominable contradiction and nonsense that ever entered into the heads of men.
Cesare Beccaria:
False is the idea of utility that sacrifices a thousand real advantages for one imaginary or trifling inconvenience; that would take fire from men because it burns, and water because one may drown in it; that has no remedy for evils except destruction. The laws that forbid the carrying of arms are laws of such a nature. They disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes. Can it be supposed that those who have the courage to violate the most sacred laws of humanity, the most important of the code, will respect the less important and arbitrary ones, which can be violated with ease and impunity, and which, if strictly obeyed, would put an end to personal liberty... and subject innocent persons to all the vexations that the guilty alone ought to suffer? Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man. They ought to be designated as laws not preventive but fearful of crimes, produced by the tumultuous impression of a few isolated facts, and not by thoughtful consideration of the inconveniences and advantages of a universal decree.

Natural Liberty

Posted: Sat Nov 25, 2017 7:12 am
by notmartha
See also "Natural"

DEFINITIONS

Webster’s Dictionary of the English Language, 1828
Liberty

2. Natural liberty consists in the power of acting as one thinks fit, without any restraint or control, except from the laws of nature. It is a state of exemption from the control of others, and from positive laws and the institutions of social life. This liberty is abridged by the establishment of government.
Bouvier’s Law Dictionary, 1856
Liberty

5. Natural liberty is the right which nature gives to all mankind, of disposing of their persons and property after the manner they judge most consonant to their happiness, on condition of their acting within the limits of the law of nature, and that they do not in any way abuse it to the prejudice of other men. Burlamaqui, c. 3, s. 15; 1 Bl. Com. 125.
Black’s Law Dictionary, 1st Edition, 1891
Liberty

Natural liberty is the right which nature gives to all mankind of disposing of their persons and property after the manner they judge most consistent with their happiness, on condition of their acting within the limits of the law of nature, and so as not to interfere with an equal exercise of the same rights by other men. Burlamaqui, c. 8, § 15; 1 Bl. Comm. 125.
Natural Liberty.

The power of acting as one thinks fit, without any restraint or control, unless by the law of nature. 1 Bl. Comm. 125.
Black’s Law Dictionary, 2nd Edition, 1910
Natural liberty.

The power of acting as one thinks fit, without any restraint or control, unless by the law of nature. 1 Bl. Comm. 125. The right which nature gives to all mankind of disposing of their persons and property after the manner they judge most consistent with their happiness, on condition of their acting within the limits of the law of nature, and so as not to interfere with an equal exercise of the same rights by other men. Burlamaqui. c. 3, 8 IS; 1 Bl. Comm. 125
Black’s Law Dictionary, 4th Edition, 1968
Natural Liberty

The power of acting as one thinks fit, without any restraint or control, unless by the law of nature. 1 Bl. Comm. 125.

The right which nature gives to all mankind of disposing of their persons and property after the manner they judge most consistent with their happiness, on condition of their acting within the limits of the law of nature, and so as not to interfere with an equal exercise of the same rights by other men. Burlamaqui, c. 3, § 15; 1 Bl.Comm. 125. It is called by Lieber social liberty, and is defined as the protection or unrestrained action in as high a degree as the same claim of protection of each individual admits of.
Black’s Law Dictionary, 5th Edition, 1979
Natural liberty.

The power of acting as one thinks fit, without any restraint or control, unless by the law of nature. The right which nature gives to all mankind of disposing of their persons and property after the manner they judge most consistent with their happiness, on condition of their acting within the limits of the law of nature, and so as not to interfere with an equal exercise of the same rights by other men. 1 Bl.Comm. 125.
MISCELLANEOUS


HANDBOOK OF AMERICAN CONSTITUTIONAL LAW, HENRY CAMPBELL BLACK, 1910
Natural liberty is not correctly described as that which might pertain to man in a state of complete isolation from his fellows. But it is the liberty to enjoy and protect those rights which appertain to his nature as a human being living in society with his kind.
Vatt. Law Nat. lib. 1, c. 19, §§ 230, 231.
'Every nation has the right to refuse to admit a foreigner into the country, when he cannot enter without putting the nation in evident danger, or doing it a manifest injury. What it owes to itself, the care of its own safety, gives it this right; and, in virtue of its natural liberty, it belongs to the nation to judge whether its circumstances will or will not justify the admission of the foreigner.' 'Thus, also, it has a right to send them elsewhere, if it has just cause to fear that they will corrupt the manners of the citizens; that they will create religious disturbances, or occasion any other disorder, contrary to the public safety. In a word, it has a right, and is even obliged, in this respect, to follow the rules which prudence dictates.'

GREEN and Others v. BIDDLE. Decided: March 5, 1821
It is a trite maxim, that man gives up a part of his natural liberty when he enters into civil society, as the price of the blessings of that state: and it may be said, with truth, this liberty is well exchanged for the advantages which flow from law and justice.
QUOTES

William Paley:
Natural liberty is the right of common upon a waste; civil liberty is the safe, exclusive, unmolested enjoyment of a cultivated enclosure.
Alexander Hamilton:
The fundamental source of all your errors, sophisms, and false reasonings, is a total ignorance of the natural rights of mankind. Were you once to become acquainted with these, you could never entertain a thought, that all men are not, by nature, entitled to a parity of privileges. You would be convinced, that natural liberty is a gift of the beneficent Creator, to the whole human race; and that civil liberty is founded in that; and cannot be wrested from any people, without the most manifest violation of justice. Civil liberty is only natural liberty, modified and secured by the sanctions of civil society. It is not a thing, in its own nature, precarious and dependent on human will and caprice; but it is conformable to the constitution of man, as well as necessary to the well-being of society.
Oliver Cromwell:
It will be found an unjust and unwise jealousy to deprive a man of his natural liberty upon the supposition he may abuse it.

Civil Liberty

Posted: Sun Nov 26, 2017 5:52 am
by notmartha
BIBLE

No verses found specific to “Civil Liberty”

“The Dominion of Providence over the Passions of Men”, John Witherspoon, 1776
The knowledge of God and his truths have from the beginning of the world been chiefly, if not entirely confined to these parts of the earth, where some degree of liberty and political justice were to be seen, and great were the difficulties with which they had to struggle from the imperfection of human society, and the unjust decisions of usurped authority. There is not a single instance in history in which civil liberty was lost, and religious liberty preserved entire. If therefore we yield up our temporal property, we at the same time deliver the conscience into bondage.
Systematic Theology, Charles Hodge, (3 vols., 1871-3)
There is another principle regarded as fundamental by all Protestants, and that is, that the Bible contains the whole rule of duty for men in their present state of existence. Nothing can legitimately bind the conscience that is not commanded or forbidden by the Word of God. This principle is the safeguard of that liberty wherewith Christ has made his people free. If it be renounced, we are at the mercy of the external Church, of the State, or of public opinion. This is simply the principle that it is right to obey God rather than man. Our obligation to render obedience to human enactments in any form, rests upon our obligation to obey God; and, therefore, whenever human laws are in conflict with the law of God we are bound to disobey them. When heathen emperors commanded Christians to worship idols, the martyrs refused. When popes and councils commanded Protestants to worship the Virgin Mary, and to acknowledge the supremacy of the bishop of Rome, the Protestant martyrs refused. When the Presbyterians of Scotland were required by their rulers in Church and State to submit themselves to the authority of prelatical bishops, they refused. When the Puritans of England were called upon to recognize the doctrine of "passive obedience," they again refused. And it is to the stand thus taken by those martyrs and confessors that the world is indebted for all of the religious and civil liberty it now enjoys.

DEFINITIONS

Webster’s Dictionary of the English Language, 1828
Liberty

3. Civil liberty is the liberty of men in a state of society, or natural liberty so far only abridged and restrained, as is necessary and expedient for the safety and interest of the society, state or nation. A restraint of natural liberty not necessary or expedient for the public, is tyranny or oppression. civil liberty is an exemption from the arbitrary will of others, which exemption is secured by established laws, which restrain every man from injuring or controlling another. Hence the restraints of law are essential to civil liberty.
Bouvier’s Law Dictionary, 1856
Liberty

3. Civil liberty is the power to do whatever is permitted by the constitution of the state and the laws of the land. It is no other than natural lib erty, so far restrained by human laws, and no further, operating equally upon all the citizens, as is necessary and expedient for the general advantage of the public. 1 Black. Com. 125; Paley's Mor. Phil. B. 6, c.5; Swifts Syst. 12

4. That system of laws is alone calculated to maintain civil liberty, which leaves the citizen entirely master of his own conduct, except in those points in which the public good requires some direction and restrant. When a man is restrained in his natural liberty by no municipal laws but those which are requisite to prevent his violating the natural law, and to promote the greatest moral and physical welfare of the community, he is legally possessed of the fullest enjoyment of his civil rights of individual liberty. But it must not be inferred that individuals are to judge for themselves how far the law may justifiably restrict their individual liberty; for it is necessary to the welfare of the commonwealth, that the law should be obeyed; and thence is derived the legal maxim, that no man may be wiser than the law.
Black’s Law Dictionary, 1st Edition, 1891
CIVIL LIBERTY.

The liberty of a member of society, being a man’s natural liberty, so far restrained by human laws (and no further) as is necessary and expedient for the general advantage of the public. 1 lil. Comm. 125; 2 Steph. Comm. 487. The power of doing whatever the laws permit. 1 Bl. Comm. 6; Inst. 1, 3, 1. See LIBERTY.
LIBERTY

Civil liberty is the greatest amount of absolute liberty which can, in the nature of things, be equally possessed by every citizen in a state. Bouvier.

The term is frequently used to denote the amount of absolute liberty which is actually enjoyed by the various citizens under the government and laws of the state as administered. 1 Bl Comm. 125.

Civil liberty is guaranteed protection against interference with the interests and rights held dear and important by large classes of civilized men, or by all the members of a state, together with an effectual share in the making and administration of the laws, as the best apparatus to secure that protection. Lieb. Civil Lib. 24.
The Century Dictionary, an Encyclopedic Lexicon of the English Language, 1895
Liberty

3. The condition of being exempt, as a community or an individual, from foreign or arbitrary political control; a condition of political self-government. Civil liberty implies the subjection of the individual members of a community to laws imposed by the community as a whole; but it does not imply the assent of each individual to these laws. .An individual has civil liberty if he is a member of a community which possesses such liberty, and is in the enjoyment of the rights which the laws of the community guarantee him.
Civil liberty

Natural liberty so far restrained by human laws (and so far only) as is necessary and expedient for the public good.
Handbook Of American Constitutional Law, Henry Campbell Black, M.A., 1910
Civil liberty is the power to make available and to defend (under the sanctions of law) those rights which concern the relations of citizen with citizen and which are recognized and secured by the fundamental law of the state.
Black’s Law Dictionary, 2nd Edition, 1910, 4th Edition, 1968
Civil liberty.

The liberty of a member of society, being a man's natural liberty, so far restrained by human laws (and no further) as is necessary and expedient for the general advantage of the public. 1 Bl. Comm. 125; 2 Steph. 487. The power of doing whatever the laws permit. 1 Bl. Comm. 6; Inst. 1, 3. 1.

The greatest amount of absolute liberty which can, in the nature of things, be equally possessed by every citizen in a state. Bouvier.. Guarantied protection against interference with the interests and rights held dear and important by large classes of civilized men, or by all the members of a state, together with an effectual share in the making and administration of the laws, as the best apparatus to secure that protection. Lieber, Civ. Lib.- 24.
Black’s Law Dictionary, 5th Edition, 1979
Liberty - Civil liberty.

The liberty of a member of society, being a man's natural liberty, so far restrained by human laws (and no further) as is necessary and expedient for the general advantage of the public. 1 Bl.Comm. 125. The power of doing whatever the laws permit. 1 Bl.Comm. 6. The greatest amount of absolute liberty which can, in the nature of things, be equally possessed by every citizen in a state. Guaranteed protection against interference with the interests and rights held dear and important by large classes of civilized men, or by all the members of a state, together with an effectual share in the making and administration of the laws, as the best apparatus to secure that protection. See Civil rights.
Civil rights.

See Civil liberties.
Civil Liberties.

Personal, natural rights guaranteed and protected by Constitution; e.g. freedom of speech, press, freedom from discrimination, etc. Body of law dealing with natural liberties, shorn of excesses which invade equal rights of others. Constitutionally, they are restraints on government. Sowers v. Ohio Civil Rights Commission, 20 Ohio Misc. 1 15, 252 N .E.2d 463, 476. See also Civil Rights Acts.
Civil Rights Acts.

Federal statutes enacted after Civil War, and more recently in 1957 and 1964, intended to implement and give further force to basic personal rights guaranteed by Constitution. Such Acts prohibit discrimination based on race, color, age, or religion.
Black’s Law Dictionary, 7th Edition, 1999
Civil Liberty

Freedom from undue governmental interference or restraint. This term usu. refers to freedom of speech or religion. – Also termed civil right.
Civil Right

1. The individual rights of personal liberty guaranteed by the Bil of Rights and by the 13th, 14th, 15th, and 19th Amendments, as well as by legislation such as the Voting Rights Act. Civil rights include esp. the right to vote, the right of due process, and the right of equal protection under the law.
2. CIVIL LIBERTY
United States Government Compendium of Interagency and Associated Terms, 2017
civil liberties –

fundamental individual rights such as freedom of speech, press, or religion; due process of law; and other limitations on the power of the Government to restrain or dictate the actions of individuals. They are the freedoms that are guaranteed by the Bill of Rights the first ten Amendments to the Constitution of the United States. Civil liberties offer protection to individuals from improper Government action and arbitrary Governmental interference

MISCELLANEOUS

Pennsylvania Charter, William Penn, 1701
“Because no People can be truly happy, though under the greatest Enjoyment of Civil Liberties, if abridged of the Freedom of their Consciences, as to their Religious Profession and Worship; And Almighty God being the only Lord of Conscience, Father of Lights and Spirits; and the Author as well as Object of all divine Knowledge, Faith and Worship, who only doth enlighten the Minds, and persuade and convince the Understanding of People, I do hereby grant and declare,” etc.
Commentaries on the Laws of England in Four Books, vol. 1, 1753, Sir William Blackstone,
For no man that considers a moment would wish to retain the absolute and uncontrolled power of doing whatever he pleases: the consequence of which is, that every other man would also have the same power, and then there would be no security to individuals in any of the enjoyments of life. Political, therefore, or civil liberty, which is that of a member of society, is no other than natural liberty so far restrained by human laws (and no farther) as is necessary and expedient for the general advantage of the public.(c) Hence we may collect that the law, which restrains a man from doing mischief to his fellow-citizens, though it diminishes the natural, increases the civil liberty of mankind; but that every wanton and causeless restraint of the will of the subject, whether practised by a monarch, a nobility, or a popular assembly, is a degree of tyranny: nay, that even laws themselves, whether made with or without our consent, if they regulate and constrain our conduct in matters of more indifference, without any good end in view, are regulations destructive of liberty: whereas, if any public advantage can arise from observing such precepts, the control of our private inclinations, in one or two particular points, will conduce to preserve our general freedom in others of more importance; by supporting that state of society, which alone can secure our independence.
Civil liberty is well defined by our author to be “that of a member of society, and is no other than natural liberty so far restrained by human laws (and no farther) as is necessary and expedient for the general advantage of the public.” Mr. Paley begins his excellent chapter upon civil liberty with the following definition:—“Civil liberty is the not being restrained by any law, but what conduces in a greater degree to the public welfare.” (B. vi. c. 5.)The Archbishop of York has defined “civil or legal liberty to be that which consists in a freedom from all restraints except such as established law imposes for the good of the community, to which the partial good of each individual is obliged to give place.” (A sermon preached Feb. 21, 1777, p. 19.) All these three definitions of civil liberty are clear, distinct, and rational, and it is probable they were intended to convey exactly the same ideas; but I am inclined to think that the definition given by the learned judge is the most perfect, as there are many restraints by natural law which, though the established law does not enforce, yet it does not vacate and remove. In the definition of civil liberty it ought to be understood, or rather expressed, that the restraints introduced by the law should be equal to all, or as much so as the nature of things will admit.
QUOTES

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.:
“At the foundation of our civil liberty lies the principle which denies to government officials an exceptional position before the law and subjects them to the same rules of conduct that are commands to the citizen.”
Alexander Hamilton:
The fundamental source of all your errors, sophisms, and false reasonings, is a total ignorance of the natural rights of mankind. Were you once to become acquainted with these, you could never entertain a thought, that all men are not, by nature, entitled to a parity of privileges. You would be convinced, that natural liberty is a gift of the beneficent Creator, to the whole human race; and that civil liberty is founded in that; and cannot be wrested from any people, without the most manifest violation of justice. Civil liberty is only natural liberty, modified and secured by the sanctions of civil society. It is not a thing, in its own nature, precarious and dependent on human will and caprice; but it is conformable to the constitution of man, as well as necessary to the well-being of society.
Justice William O. Douglas:
A people who extend civil liberties only to preferred groups start down the path either to dictatorship of the right or the left.
John Quincy Adams:
Civil liberty can be established on no foundation of human reason which will not at the same time demonstrate the right of religious freedom.
Daniel Webster:
If the true spark of religious and civil liberty be kindled, it will burn.
John Milton:
The whole freedom of man consists either in spiritual or civil liberty.
Richard A. Viguerie:
The first duty of government is to protect the citizen from assault. Unless it does this, all the civil rights and civil liberties in the world aren't worth a dime.
Robert M. Lafollette, Sr.:
Let no man think we can deny civil liberty to others and retain it for ourselves. When zealous agents of the Government arrest suspected “radicals” without warrant, hold them without prompt trial, deny them access to counsel and admission of bail....we have shorn the Bill of Rights of its sanctity...
William Paley:
Natural liberty is the right of common upon a waste; civil liberty is the safe, exclusive, unmolested enjoyment of a cultivated enclosure.
William Godwin:
Make men wise, and by that very operation you make them free. Civil liberty follows as a consequence of this; no usurped power can stand against the artillery of opinion.
William Graham Sumner:
Civil liberty is the status of the man who is guaranteed by law and civil institutions the exclusive employment of all his own powers for his own welfare.
David B. Kopel:
[T]he drug prohibition laws have led to wholesale destruction of civil liberties. The War on Drugs has now become a War on the Constitution, and the American people have become, in the eyes of their government, a society of suspects.
John Milton:
When complaints are freely heard, deeply considered, and speedily reformed, then is the utmost bound of civil liberty obtained that wise men look for.
William S. Cohen:
Terrorism is escalating to the point that Americans soon may have to choose between civil liberties and more intrusive means of protection.
Thomas Paine:
This new world hath been the asylum for the persecuted lovers of civil and religious liberty from every part of Europe. Hither have they fled, not from the tender embraces of the mother, but from the cruelty of the monster; and it is so far true of England, that the same tyranny which drove the first emigrants from home, pursues their descendants still.
Justice Louis D. Brandeis:
At the foundation of our civil liberties lies the principle that denies to government officials an exceptional position before the law and which subjects them to the same rules of conduct that are commands to the citizen.
Joseph Willard:
There is sufficient evidence that a number of societies, of the Illuminati, have been established in this land of Gospel light and civil liberty, which were first organized from the grand society, in France. They are doubtless secretly striving to undermine all our ancient institutions, civil and sacred. These societies are closely leagued with those of the same Order, in Europe; they have all the same object in view. The enemies of all order are seeking our ruin. Should infidelity generally prevail, our independence would fall of course. Our republican government would be annihilated.
Edmund Burke:
Men are qualified for civil liberty in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral chains upon their own appetites.
Benjamin Franklin:
A Bible and a newspaper in every house, a good school in every district - all studied and appreciated as they merit - are the principal support of virtue, morality, and civil liberty.
William O. Douglas:
A people who extend civil liberties only to preferred groups start down the path either to dictatorship of the right or the left.
Laura Murphy:
The civil liberties of people of all ideologies are threatened by a government determined to appear tough on terrorism. The government is going to be given broad new powers to investigate people for political activities -- activities on both sides of the political spectrum.
Justice William J. Brennan:
The concept of military necessity is seductively broad, and has a dangerous plasticity. Because they invariably have the visage of overriding importance, there is always a temptation to invoke security "necessities" to justify an encroachment upon civil liberties. For that reason, the military-security argument must be approached with a healthy skepticism.
Felix Frankfurter:
It is easy to make light of insistence on scrupulous regard for the safeguards of civil liberties when invoked on behalf of the unworthy. History bears testimony that by such disregard are the rights of liberty extinguished, heedlessly at first, then stealthily, and brazenly in the end.


For further reading, see On Civil Liberty and Self-Government by Francis Lieber, 1853
http://oll.libertyfund.org/title/1943

Political Liberty

Posted: Fri Dec 01, 2017 1:07 pm
by notmartha
See also Enfranchisement

BIBLE

“Political liberty” is not specifically found in the KJV.


DEFINITIONS

Webster’s Dictionary of the English Language, 1828
4. Political liberty is sometimes used as synonymous with civil liberty But it more properly designates the liberty of a nation, the freedom of a nation or state from all unjust abridgment of its rights and independence by another nation. Hence we often speak of the political liberties of Europe, or the nations of Europe.
Bouvier’s Law Dictionary, 1856
Liberty -
7. Political liberty may be defined to be, the security by which, from the constitution, form and nature of the established government, the citizens enjoy civil liberty. No ideas or definitions are more distinguishable than those of civil and political liberty, yet they are generally confounded. 1 Bl. Com. 6, 125. The political liberty of a state is based upon those fundamental laws which establish the distribution of legislative and executive powers. The political liberty of a citizen is that tranquility of mind, which is the effect of an opinion that he is in perfect security; and to insure this security, the government must be such that one citizen shall not fear another.
Black’s Law Dictionary, 1st Edition, 1891
POLITICAL (OR CIVIL) LIBERTY.

Natural liberty, restrained by human law so far as is necessary and expedient for the public advantage. See 2 Steph. Comm. (7th Ed.) 466. See LIBERTY.
Liberty

Political liberty is an effectual share in the making and administration of the laws. Lieb. Civil Lib.
The Century Dictionary, an Encyclopedic Lexicon of the English Language, 1895
Political liberty, freedom from political usurpation; the condition of a people which participates in the making of its own laws, in a state which is not subject to foreign domination.
Black’s Law Dictionary, 2nd Edition, 1910, 4th Edition, 1968, 5th Edition, 1979
LIBERTY, Political liberty.

Liberty of the citizen to participate in the operations of government, and particularly in the making and administration of the laws.
Black’s Law Dictionary, 7th Edition, 1999
Political Liberty

A person’s freedom to participate in the operation of government, esp. in the making and administration of laws.
MISCELLANEOUS CITATIONS AND QUOTES


Commentaries on the Laws of England in Four Books, vol. 1, William Blackstone, 1753
Political liberty may be defined to be the security with which, from the constitution, form, and nature of the established government, the subjects enjoy civil liberty. No ideas or definitions are more distinguishable than those of civil and political liberty; yet they are generally confounded; and the latter cannot yet claim an appropriate name. The learned judge uses political and civil liberty indiscriminately; but it would, perhaps, be convenient uniformly to use those terms in the respective senses here suggested, or to have some fixed specific denominations of ideas which in their nature are so widely different. The last species of liberty has probably more than the rest engaged the attention of mankind, and particularly of the people of England. Civil liberty, which is nothing more than the impartial administration of equal and expedient laws, they have long enjoyed nearly to as great an extent as can be expected under any human establishment.
Political liberty, on the other hand, is that state in which the individual enjoys civil liberty with security; a security, as the experience of history shows, only to be attained by the force of public opinion, formed and influenced by an untrammelled press, and by the legislators being at stated intervals chosen by the people and from the people, upon whom their enactments are to operate. The particular form which may assign to the government its denomination in political science may be, and often is, important to this end, but not of the essence of political liberty. It follows, too, from this definition, that some classes or orders of men in a country may enjoy a higher degree of political liberty than others, while some, indeed, may be entirely deprived of it. “The value of any form of government,” says Mr. Palgrave, “depends upon the protection which through the law it affords to the individual.”
Lysander Spooner:
It is indispensable to a “free government,” (in the political sense of that term,) that the minority, the weaker party, have a veto upon the acts of the majority. Political liberty is liberty for the weaker party in a nation. It is only the weaker party that lose their liberties, when a government becomes oppressive. The stronger party, in all governments, are free by virtue of their superior strength. They never oppress themselves.
That the only security men can have for their political liberty, consists in their keeping their money in their own pockets, until they have assurances, perfectly satisfactory to themselves, that it will be used as they wish it to be used, for their benefit, and not for their injury.
On Civil Liberty and Self-Government, Francis Lieber, 1853
Cicero says: Liberty is the power of living as thou willest. This does not apply to civil liberty. It would apply to savage insulation. If it was meant for political liberty, it would have been necessary to add, “so far as the same liberty of others does not limit your own living as you choose.” But we always live in society, so that this definition can have a value only as a most general one, to serve as a starting-point, in order to explain liberty if applied to different spheres. Whether this was the probable intention of a practical Roman, I need not decide.
Lord Hailsham:
Political liberty is nothing else but the diffusion of power.
James Fenimore Cooper:
Individuality is the aim of political liberty. By leaving to the citizen as much freedom of action and of being as comports with order and the rights of others, the institutions render him truly a free man. He is left to pursue his means of happiness in his own manner.
Will Durant:
Forced to choose, the poor, like the rich, love money more than political liberty; and the only political freedom capable of enduring is one that is so pruned as to keep the rich from denuding the poor by ability or subtlety and the poor from robbing the rich by violence or votes.
Robert Hall:
To render the magistrate a judge of truth, and engage his authority in the suppression of opinions, shews an inattention to the nature and designs of political liberty.
A letter, contained in H.R.Rep.No.1804, 73d Cong., 2d Sess., 8 (1934), from President F. D. Roosevelt to Congressman Howard states:
'We can and should, without further delay, extend to the Indian the fundamental rights of political liberty and local self-government and the opportunities of education and economic assistance that they require in order to attain a wholesome American life. This is but the obligation of honor of a powerful nation toward a people living among us and dependent upon our protection.'
JOHNSON v. UNITED STATES, 1947
In Gouled v. United States, this Court said: 'It would not be possible to add to the emphasis with which the framers of our Constitution and this court (in Boyd v. United States, in Weeks v. United States, and in Silverthorne Lumber Co. v. United States) have declared the importance to political liberty and to the welfare of our country of the due observance of the rights guaranteed under the Constitution by these two (Fourth and Fifth) Amendments. The effect of the decisions cited is: That such rights are declared to be indispensable to the 'full enjoyment of personal security, personal liberty, and private property'; that they are to be regarded as of the very essence of constitutional liberty; and that the guaranty of them is as important and as imperative as are the guaranties of the other fundamental rights of the individual citizen—the right to trial by jury, to the writ of habeas corpus, and to due process of law. It has been repeatedly decided that these amendments should receive a liberal construction, so as to prevent stealthy encroachment upon or 'gradual depreciation' of the rights secured by them, by imperceptible practice of courts or by well-intentioned, but mistakenly overzealous, executive officers.'

Boyd v. United States
“…any compulsory discovery by extorting the party's oath is contrary to the principles of a free government. It is abhorrent to the instincts of an American. It may suit the purposes of despotic power, but it cannot abide the pure atmosphere of political liberty and personal freedom.”

Religious Liberty

Posted: Tue Dec 05, 2017 8:38 pm
by notmartha
BIBLE

“The Dominion of Providence over the Passions of Men”, John Witherspoon, 1776
If your cause is just--you may look with confidence to the Lord and intreat him to plead it as his own. You are all my witnesses, that this is the first time of my introducing any political subject into the pulpit. At this season, however, it is not only lawful but necessary, and I willingly embrace the opportunity of declaring my opinion without any hesitation, that the cause in which America is now in arms, is the cause of Justice, of liberty, and of human nature. So far as we have hitherto proceeded, I am satisfied that the confederacy of the colonies, has not been the effect of pride, resentment, or sedition, but of a deep and general conviction, that our civil and religious liberties, and consequently in a great measure the temporal and eternal happiness of us and our posterity depended on the issue. The knowledge of God and his truths have from the beginning of the world been chiefly, if not entirely confined to these parts of the earth, where some degree of liberty and political justice were to be seen, and great were the difficulties with which they had to struggle from the imperfection of human society, and the unjust decisions of usurped authority. There is not a single instance in history in which civil liberty was lost, and religious liberty preserved entire. If therefore we yield up our temporal property, we at the same time deliver the conscience into bondage.
“Letters to Jessica,” Lesson 1 by Robert Bissett
If you really want God for you sovereign, then you must reject the United States as sovereign. Some of the big wizards understand the problem of giving allegiance to the state when you should give allegiance to God. In 1945, they said so:
The struggle for religious liberty has through the centuries been an effort to accommodate the demands of the State to the conscience of the individual. The victory from freedom of thought recorded in our Bill of Rights recognizes that in the domain of conscience there is a moral power higher than the State. Throughout the ages, men have suffered death rather than subordinate their allegiance to God to the authority of the State. Freedom of religion guaranteed by the First Amendment is the product of that struggle. As we recently stated...'Freedom of thought, which includes freedom of religious belief, is basic in a society of free men...'Girouard vs United States, 328 US 61, 68& 69.

DEFINITIONS

Webster’s Dictionary of the English Language, 1828
LIBERTY
5. Religious liberty is the free right of adopting and enjoying opinions on religious subjects, and of worshiping the Supreme Being according to the dictates of conscience, without external control.
Bouvier’s Law Dictionary, 1856

none

Black’s Law Dictionary, 1st Edition, 1891

none

The Century Dictionary, an Encyclopedic Lexicon of the English Language, 1895
LIBERTY

—Religious liberty, the right of freely adopting and professing opinions on religious subjects, and of worshiping or refraining from worship according to the dictates of conscience, without external control.
Black’s Law Dictionary, 2nd Edition, 1910
LIBERTY —Religious liberty.

Freedom from dictation, constraint, or control in matters affecting the conscience, religious beliefs, and the practice of religion; freedom to entertain and express any or no system of religious opinions, and to engage in or refrain from any form of religious observance or public or private religious worship, not inconsistent with the peace and good order of society and the general welfare.
Black’s Law Dictionary, 4th Edition, 1968
RELIGIOUS LIBERTY

Freedom from dictation, constraint, or control in matters affecting the conscience, religious beliefs, and the practice of religion; freedom to entertain and express any or no system of religious opinions, and to engage in or refrain from any form of religious observance or public or private religious worship, not inconsistent with the peace and good order of society and the general welfare. See Frazee's Case, 63 Mich, 396, 30 N.W. 72, 6 Am.St.Rep. 310; State v. White, 64 N.H. 48, 5 A. 828.
Black’s Law Dictionary, 5th Edition, 1979
RELIGIOUS LIBERTY.

Freedom, as guaranteed by First Amendment of U.S. Constitution, from dictation, constraint, or control in matters affecting the conscience, religious beliefs, and the practice of religion. Freedom to entertain and express any or no system of religious opinions, and to engage in or refrain from any form of religious observance or public or private religious worship, not inconsistent with the peace and good order of society and the general welfare. See also Religion; Religious freedom.
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM.

Within Constitution embraces not only the right to worship God according to the dictates of one's conscience, but also the right to do, or forbear to do, any act, for conscience sake, the doing or forbearing of which is not inimical to the peace, good order, and morals of society. Barnette v. West Virginia State Board of Education, D.C.W.Va., 47 F.Supp. 25 1 , 253, 254; Jones v. City of Moultrie, 196 Ga. 526, 27 S.E.2d 39. See also Establishment clause.
Black’s Law Dictionary, 7th Edition, 1999
LIBERTY – Religious Liberty

Freedom – as guaranteed by the First Amendment – to express, without external control other than one’s own conscience, any or no system of religious opinion and to engage in or refrain from any form of religious observance or public or private religious worship, as long as it is consistent with the peace and order of society.
MISC. CITATIONS


Northwest Ordinance; July 13, 1787
An Ordinance for the government of the Territory of the United States northwest of the River Ohio.

Sec. 13. And, for extending the fundamental principles of civil and religious liberty, which form the basis whereon these republics, their laws and constitutions are erected;

TITLE 42 , CHAPTER 21B—RELIGIOUS FREEDOM RESTORATION

(Read the complete code regarding how STATE can control religious liberty to benefit STATE)
https://www.lawfulpath.com/forum/downlo ... .php?id=72
Government shall not substantially burden a person’s exercise of religion even if the burden results from a rule of general applicability, except as provided in subsection (b) of this section.

(b) Exception
Government may substantially burden a person’s exercise of religion only if it demonstrates that
application of the burden to the person—

(1) is in furtherance of a compelling governmental interest; and
(2) is the least restrictive means of furthering that compelling governmental interest.
QUOTES

Giovanni Miegge:
Religious liberty is primarily a man’s liberty to profess a faith different from that of the dominant religion, and to unite in public worship with those who share his faith.
James Madison:
Freedom arises from a multiplicity of sects, which pervades America, and is the best and only security for religious liberty in America.
Thomas Paine:
This new world hath been the asylum for the persecuted lovers of civil and religious liberty from every part of Europe. Hither have they fled, not from the tender embraces of the mother, but from the cruelty of the monster; and it is so far true of England, that the same tyranny which drove the first emigrants from home, pursues their descendants still.
Alan Keyes:
...[A] prohibition on moral judgments against various sexual behaviors is a violation of the freedom, even of the religious liberty, of those who view such behavior as wrong. If we don't have a right to act according to our religious belief by forming judgments according to those beliefs about human conduct and behavior, then, exactly what does the free exercise of religion mean? Can the free exercise of religion really mean simply that I have the right to believe that God has ordained certain things to be right or wrong but that I can't act accordingly? Surely free exercise means the freedom to act according to belief. And, yet, if we are not allowed to act according to belief when it comes to fundamental moral precepts, then what will be the moral implications of religion? None at all. But if we accept an understanding of religious liberty that doesn't permit us to discriminate the wheat from the chaff in our own actions and those of others, haven't we in fact permitted the government to dictate to us a uniform approach to religion? And, isn't that dictation of uniformity in religion exactly what the First Amendment intended to forbid?
John Stuart Mill:
The great writers to whom the world owes what religious liberty it possesses, have mostly asserted freedom of conscience as an indefeasible right, and denied absolutely that a human being is accountable to others for his religious belief. Yet so natural to mankind is intolerance in whatever they really care about, that religious freedom has hardly anywhere been practically realised, except where religious indifference, which dislikes to have its peace disturbed by theological quarrels, has added its weight to the scale.
Thomas F. Bayard:
Religious liberty is the chief cornerstone of the American system of government, and provisions for its security are embedded in the written charter and interwoven in the moral fabric of its laws. Anything that tends to invade a right so essential and sacred must be carefully guarded against, and I am satisfied that my countrymen, ever mindful of the suffering and sacrifices necessary to obtain it, will never consent to its impairment for any reason or under any pretext whatsoever.