Liberty in History

Liberty didn't begin with the signing of the Declaration, nor did it begin with the drafting and ratification of the Constitution.

Liberty's written roots begin with the basic individualism tenets sown by Christians, Greeks, and Romans from Erasmus and Montaigne, Cicero and Tacitus, to Pericles and Thucydides, classic later expansions and refinements of import were undertaken by Cobden and Bright, Adam Smith and Hume, Locke and Milton.  Perhaps the heights of illustration and illumination took place in the writings of Tocqueville and Lord Acton followed by von Mises and Hayek.

The chief point is that a lot of civilizations have obtained some level of Individual Freedom only to lose it over time through reckless legislative fiddling with it's underlying principles.  In most cases the primary motive was to correct some perceived social injustice, in all cases the result was some form of socialism and consequent loss of the spontaneous developments needed to sustain long term societal success.

Successful societies can live with a prescribed level of coercion by government, understood and agreed to at the outset.  Successful societies cannot thrive with arbitrary coercion, it will eventually erode the very foundation that enabled success.....Individual Liberty.