True Liberty

What is the Essence or Spirit of Liberty?
by Charlie Leck

At a time when rabble-rousing Tea Party types are pumping their fists and bellowing out their rage, we ought to quietly reflect on the real meaning of “Liberty for All.” These comments by Learned Hand (1872-1961), which he made at a gathering for I Am An American Day in Central Park on 21 May 1944, were passed along by Ted Dooley through an email information service to which I subscribe. They are simply too profound and poignantly relevant not to share them with you.

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...

Now that the fireworks have died down, and the parades are ended, and the flags have been furled and stowed until next year, perhaps it is a good time to quietly think about what Judge Hand was saying.

Liberty, of this kind, is something I don’t think the modern Tea Party gets. My liberty only has value if I am willing to protect the liberty of all. My liberty is real only if all in my nation have such liberty. “Liberty is not the freedom to do as one likes. That is the denial of liberty and leads straight to its overthrow.”

What is the spirit of liberty? It is like asking about the essence, or the core of liberty!

“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...”

Oh, what a profound concept. Publish it across the nation that all may hear and understand: “Protect thy neighbor’s liberty! In so doing you protect thine own!”

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