Liberty, when it begins to take root, is a plant of rapid growth
Source: Letter to James Madison (Mar. 2, 1788)
Topic
Liberty in this collection is most contested at its edges. Longfellow's resolve-and-thou-art-free is the Stoic claim: inner freedom is available regardless of external constraint. Washington on liberty as a plant of rapid growth once it takes root is the horticultural optimism of a man who watched it happen. Rousseau's preference for liberty with danger over peace with slavery is the categorical statement: liberty is not negotiable against comfort. Bastiat's inversion — property rights did not arise from laws but laws from prior rights — argues that liberty is not a gift from governments but the condition they exist to protect. Bierce's vote definition does what Bierce does best: translates democratic idealism into its actual mechanism, which includes a significant capacity for self-harm. Everett on education as a better safeguard than standing armies closes the collection: the most durable protection of liberty is the formation of citizens capable of exercising it.
Liberty, when it begins to take root, is a plant of rapid growth
Vote: The instrument and symbol of a freeman's power to make a fool of himself and a wreck of his country
A day, an hour, of virtuous liberty Is worth a whole eternity in bondage
Remember the Ladies, and be more generous and favourable to them than your ancestors.
Liberty is power.
If perticuliar care and attention is not paid to the Laidies we are determined to foment a Rebelion.
Liberty is the breath of progress.
You live in your dressing gown, the great enemy of liberty and activity.