“The end of Law is not to abolish or restrain, but to preserve and enlarge Freedom.” -John Locke, Second Treatise of Government

Individualism “What is true of every member of the society, individually, is true of them all collectively; since the rights of the whole can be no more than the sum of the rights of the individuals.” -Thomas Jefferson to James Madison 1789

Skepticism about power “The essence of Government is power, and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse.” -James Madison, Speech before the Virginia State Constitutional Convention, December 1, 1829

Rule of Law “Thus the ‘Law of Nature’ stands as an eternal rule to all men, legislators as well as others. The rules that they make for other men’s actions, must, as well as their own and other men’s actions, be conformable to the ‘Law of Nature,’ i.e. to the will of God, of which that is a declaration, and the fundamental law of nature being the preservation of mankind, no human sanction can be good, or valid against it.” - John Locke, “Second Treatise in Civil Government”, Chapter-11, Section 134

Civil Society “[We in America entertain] a due sense of our equal right to the use of our own faculties, to the acquisitions of our own industry, to honor and confidence from our fellow-citizens resulting not from birth but from our actions and their sense of them.” - Thomas Jefferson: 1 st Inaugural, 1801

Spontaneous Order “As every individual, therefore, endeavours as much as he can both to employ his capital in the support of domestic industry, and so to direct that industry that its produce may be of the greatest value; every individual necessarily labours to render the annual revenue of the society as great as he can. He generally, indeed, neither intends to promote the public interest, nor knows how much he is promoting it. By preferring the support of domestic to that of foreign industry, he intends