The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1897-04-30
For the Jasper COURIER.
LIBERTY.

Montesquieu in his great work
1.-THE Spirit of Laws" says OF the
English, "They know better than
any other people on earth, how to
value at the same time these three
great advantages-religion, COM
merce, and liberty" The same
profound writer lays it down as an
axiom that "a nation in slavery
labors more to preserve than to ac-
quire free nation, more 10 ac-
quire than to preserve. He shows
also that the indulgence OF the poor
may be "the consequence of their
slavery" under severe government,
while the poverty Of others "consti-
tutes part Of their liberty."> II he
is right, and no competent Judge
doubts it, then it follows that we as
a free people should not only be
jealous of such liberty as we already
possess, bat should endeavor to ac-
quire as much more as is needed for
the most perfect and, therefore, the
happiest state Of society. Any in
|fringement Of our just liberties is
treason to our best interests. Every
enlargement of them is an additional
step towards the general good.
Thus it behooves all true citizens to
be on the alert and to guard them
against "reactionaries," who are
the foes of freedom. For these
! have been very active of late in re-
gard to religion, commerce, and
,liberty."
/ Man, by nature, is independent /;
free as the birds Of the air or the un-
tanned beasts of the forest to do
Whatsoever seems to him good
When "wild in woods the noble
savage ran," he practised the Ii
cense Of other wild creatures and
consulted only his appetites, which
he satisfied as he could by strength
and cunning. But, in every state
of civilization, men have given up
their natural freedom to live under
political laws, and the natural COM
munity of goods to live under civil
laws. The first remuneration gives
them liberty; second, property.
Thus the safety OF the liberty and
the goods Of the people is the su.
preme law of all communities. The
Imore these are assured the more
perfect is the stage of civilization,
and the farther its members are re-
moved from license and commun-
ism. Every encroachment, there
fore, on either liberty or property is
a retrograde and deteriorating step
toward the savagery from which
mankind has sprung.
"Liberty," according 10 Montes-
quieu, Consists principally in not
being forced to do thing where the
laws do not oblige." Locke's def
milton is longer but ler:-"The
natural liberty OF Man is to be free
from any superior power on earth,
and not to be under the will or leg
Iislative authority OF man, but to have
only the law of Nature for his rule.
:. The liberty Of Man in society,
is to be under no other Legislative
power but that established by con-
sent, in the commonwealth; nor
under the dominion of any will, or
restraint of any law, but what the
Legislative shall enact according to
the trust put in it," Again he says,
"Powers are relations, not agents
and that which has the power, or
not the power, to operate, is that
alone which is or is not free, and not
the power itselr, for freedom, or not
freedom, can belong to nothing but
what has or has not a power to act. F"
He demonstrates that will is a pow
er only and not an agent, and adds
$50 that the idea Of liberty is the
idea Of a power in any agent to do,
or forbear, any particular action, ac
cording to the determination, or
thought Of the mind, whereby either
of them is preferred to the other;
where either of them is not in the
power Of the agent TO be produced
by him, according to his volition,
there he is not at liberty, that agent
is under necessity; 80 that liberty
cannot be where there is no thought,
no volition, no will; but there may
be thought, there may be will, there
may be volition, where there is no
liberty" The man who delivered
himself Of these views was one Of the
worlds intellectual giants, and it is
refreshing in these days, when we
are surrounded by multitude of
turbid rills Of falsehood or stupidity,
to drink a draught or two from the
cool and limpid fountains of phi
losophy.
I The wor1 law comes from the
Anglo-Saxon verb 'lagyan, which
is equivalent to the Latin "ponere. "
II means something or anything