Social Conditions that Make Freedom Possible - Essay Example

Ever since the earliest days of the nascent republic, the essence of America has been presented as one of freedom and liberties for the individual. The Founding Fathers sought to preserve and ensure these rights of self-determination through the institution of a philosophy explicitly predicated on the existence of natural, inalienable rights to such things as life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

What such absolute rights entail are negative duties among citizens of the shared state: that a right to life does not necessitate one’s duty to give something in order to ensure another’s life is maintained. Likewise, a right to liberty does not mean that one is entitled to such at the cost of others, and the right to the pursuit of happiness does not mean that one can enslave others to acquire it. Instead, the essence of American freedom—recognized throughout the world—is centered on rugged individualism and the rights one has not to be interfered with.

Thus, when one speaks of “American freedom”, one speaks of this type of freedom in particular and not any other. The political institution logically entailed by “American freedom” is one of a laissez-faire government related to the marketplace. In American history, the greatest advocate of this vision was Yale professor William Graham Sumner, who attempted to persuade fellow citizens that government is not so much a vehicle for growing freedom than a mode through which individual citizens defend liberties.

Thus, the government existed only to protect “the property of men and the honor of women”, and not to crush the fabric of nature (Coontz 131). Sumner’s account is consistent with Thomas Jefferson’s political philosophy—immortalized into the Declaration of Independence wherein he states boldly: “That to secure [natural rights], Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed” (Jefferson). What is necessary for the achievement of “American freedom” is not a meddlesome government that Jefferson and others sought to free themselves from, but one to protect rights.