How does the Constitution establish and maintain a culture of liberty - Essay Example

These rights are generally acknowledged to be beyond the control of the government. Individual liberty is plays a critical part in achieving individual and societal progress. It is important for attainment of the truth and should be defended from any form of tyranny. Individual liberty forms the basis of universal freedom and human rights. The philosophy of individual liberty is the core value that protects individuals’ freedom, and gives them the right to safeguard their rights. Individual liberty imposes responsibility for self-governance and freedom of choice on an individual.

In regards to individual liberty contribution to the constitution’s preservation of liberty, the “self” factors associated with free men come into play: self-respect (spiritual), self-reliance (economic), and self-discipline (political-social). Self-respect results from the realization of an individual that they are of divine creation and that the spiritual is supreme. These facts are illustrated in the individuals’ effort in maintaining integrity of unalienable rights. Principles of self-respect insist that people should respect other people.

Realization of this aspect of liberty translates to equality and mutual respect among members of the society, which is the main objective of the constitution. The self-reliance factor advocates for economic independence of individuals from others and the government. Economic reliance on other individuals is considered the source of evils in the society. An economically independent individual is a free man enjoying liberty. From Alexander Hamilton’s quote, power over a man’s subsistence contributes power over his free will.

Economic independence rids the community of social evils that threaten liberty of individuals. Self-discipline of individuals involves their good-will performance of duties assigned to them. Self-discipline advocates for the truth, a principle that states that there is no right apart from duty, and no freedom or liberty apart from responsibility. Self-discipline draws the boundary between the rights of individuals and equal rights of others in the society. This means that individuals in the society understand their rights, and the boundary that separates those rights with the equality of other people.

Such an understanding in the society will create sound conduct in the general community concerning maintenance and upholding of individuals’ liberty. It highlights the political-social characteristic of free man living among free men surrounded by an environment of freedom. Several founders highlight the importance of individual rights and citizen’s liberty. In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson wrote that one important duty of the government to its citizen was to safeguard the inalienable rights of individuals, which include liberty, life, and pursuit of happiness.

The Fifth and Fourteenth Amendment safeguards individuals’ liberty, life, and property without due process (Bills of Rights Institute). They secure and safeguard the blessings of individuals’ liberty. Another founder, James Wilson, explained the importance of liberty in laws, saying that law without liberty is meaningless. Individual and religious liberty remains one of the most essential principles of the human freedom. Founded by Ambassador John L. Loeb, it paved way to freedom of warship and free exercising of individual faith to all religious minorities by the Government.

It was due to the Ambassador, the founder, that American Experiment became a