Historic Views on Government – Samuel Adams

Honest opinion about government from Samuel Adams:

What a man has honestly acquired is absolutely his own, which he may freely give, but cannot be taken from him without his consent.
   Massachusetts circular letter, Feb. 11, 1768

Among the natural rights of the colonists are these: first, a right to life; secondly, to liberty; thirdly to property; together with the right to support and defend them in the best manner they can. Those are evident branches of, rather than deductions from, the duty of self-preservation, commonly called the first law of nature.
   "The Rights of the Colonists," 1772

American Revolutionary leader and member of the Massachusetts legislature (1765-1774), Samuel Adams was instrumental in maintaining activities of the Committees of Correspondence among American colonies and a leader in the agitation that led to the Boston Tea Party. He was also a delegate to the First and Second Continental Congresses and a signer of the Declaration of the Independence.

Quotation and short bio from The Quotable Conservative: The Giants of Conservatism on Liberty, Freedom, Individual Responsibility, and Traditional Values. Rod L. Evans and Irwin M. Berent, editors. Holbrook, Mass.: Adams Publishing, 1996.

Historic Views on Government – Acton

Honest opinion about government from Lord Acton:

Liberty alone demands for its realization the limitation of the public authority, for liberty is the only object which benefits all alike, and provokes no sincere opposition.

…Liberty and good government do not exclude each other; and there are excellent reasons why they should go together. Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end.
   The Home and Foreign Review, 1862

The great question is to discover, not what governments prescribe, but what they ought to prescribe; for no prescription is valid against the conscience of mankind.
   The History of Freedom in Antiquity, 1877

Lord Acton was an English historian who served as Regius professor of modern history at Cambridge (1895-1902). He edited Cambridge Modern History and wrote on the French Revolution and modern history. One of his most noteworthy books is The History of Freedom in Antiquity (1877).

Quotation and short bio from The Quotable Conservative: The Giants of Conservatism on Liberty, Freedom, Individual Responsibility, and Traditional Values. Rod L. Evans and Irwin M. Berent, editors. Holbrook, Mass.: Adams Publishing, 1996.