The U.S. Founding Generation and Their Concepts of Liberty

Liberty
Name
Institution
Liberty
The founding fathers were key drivers of democracy and freedom of expression as enjoyed by many citizens. Their views on an ideal nation was basically based on the need to protect the rights of citizens while giving government power over the governed through their consent. Their understanding of liberty was mostly guided by the desire to have a nation that is run in an orderly manner and that people were free to choose what they wanted to do with their lives. A simple definition of the word liberty is "the state or condition of people who are able to act and speak freely."  It includes freedom from restraint or control from almost anything, other than illegal or harmful activities CITATION Wel16 \l 1033 (Welch, 2016).  Majorly, the founding fathers put most of the responsibilities on government on issues such as security and peaceful co-existence among the populace. This essay seeks to explore the understood the concept of liberty and where their ideas about liberty came from.
Aristotle, through his study of the 158 cities, held that it was necessary to subject all citizens to the rule of law which was meant to serve as the standard reference point for both government and the citizenry. Plato also viewed government as a possible avenue through which individuals may get power to disrupt or use their influence wrongly and make the citizens suffer at their hands. It was on this basis that they both emphasized on the need for rule of law which could create boundaries to limit both governments and citizens from interfering with each other's liberty. Through the concept of the Constitution emerged with the aim of limiting influence of leaders on their subjects and at the same time giving freedom to the citizens.
Other scholars held that the most important aspect in liberty was the Natural Law. The principle of natural law as attributed by Thomas Jefferson during Declaration of Independence was highly regarded based on the fact that some aspects of leadership originated from God and were natural. This view was also echoed by John Locke who held virtue as the key to liberty. Locke engrained virtue as the main ingredient towards enjoyment of freedoms by the citizenly. He regarded religion so highly and often argued that even with existence of laws without virtue many people may not respect them. Locke argued that religion was an important aspect in driving the concept of liberty among the populace. He held that men were God's workmanship and therefore they were God's property CITATION Man06 \l 1033 (Mansfield, 2006). Also every man has their property in their own person. He argued that whereas men were free to do whatever they wished with their property, they were limited in terms of interference to what God can do to them. Therefore, according to him there was need first to focus on virtues as a guideline for liberty. He believed that with proper guidance by religious leaders it would be easy for people to enjoy their liberty and freedoms without interfering with those of others CITATION Kam02 \l 1033 (Kaminski, 2002). This view was however held by a number of founding fathers who mostly argued that some rights were natural and needed no protection by the government. One of the not...