Liberty
| Noun | 1. |  liberty - immunity from arbitrary exercise of authority: political independenceSynonyms: autonomy |
| 2. | liberty - freedom of choice; "liberty of opinion"; "liberty of worship"; "liberty--perfect liberty--to think or feel or do just as one pleases"; "at liberty to choose whatever occupation one wishes" | |
| 3. | liberty - personal freedom from servitude or confinement or oppression | |
| 4. | liberty - leave granted to a sailor or naval officer Synonyms: shore leave | |
| 5. | liberty - an act of undue intimacy |
LIBERTY. Freedom from restraint. The power of acting as one thinks fit,
without any restraint or control, except from the laws of nature.
2. Liberty is divided into civil, natural, personal, and political.
3. Civil liberty is the power to do whatever is permitted by the
constitution of the state and the laws of the land. It is no other than
natural liberty, so far restrained by human laws, and no further, operating
equally upon all the citizens, as is necessary and expedient for the general
advantage of the public. 1 Black. Com. 125; Paley's Mor. Phil. B. 6, c.5;
Swifts Syst. 12
4. That system of laws is alone calculated to maintain civil liberty,
which leaves the citizen entirely master of his own conduct, except in those
points in which the public good requires some direction and restraint. When a
man is restrained in his natural liberty by no municipal laws but those
which are requisite to prevent his violating the natural law, and to promote
the greatest moral and physical welfare of the community, he is legally
possessed of the fullest enjoyment of his civil rights of individual
liberty. But it must not be inferred that individuals are to judge for
themselves how far the law may justifiably restrict their individual
liberty; for it is necessary to the welfare of the commonwealth, that the
law should be obeyed; and thence is derived the legal maxim, that no man may
be wiser than the law.
5. Natural liberty is the right which nature gives to all mankind, of
disposing of their persons and property after the manner they judge most
consonant to their happiness, on condition of their acting within the limits
of the law of nature, and that they do not in any way abuse it to the
prejudice of other men. Burlamaqui, c. 3, s. 15; 1 Bl. Com. 125.
6. Personal liberty is the independence of our actions of all other
will than our own. Wolff, Ins. Nat. Sec. 77. It consists in the power of
locomotion, of changing situation, or removing one's person to whatever
place one's inclination may direct, without imprisonment or restraint,
unless by due course of law. 1 Bl. Com. 134.
7. Political liberty may be defined to be, the security by which, from
the constitution, form and nature of the established government, the
citizens enjoy civil liberty. No ideas or definitions are more
distinguishable than those of civil and political liberty, yet they are
generally confounded. 1 Bl. Com. 6, 125. The political liberty of a state is
based upon those fundamental laws which establish the distribution of
legislative and executive powers. The political liberty of a citizen is that
tranquillity of mind, which is the effect of an opinion that he is in
perfect security; and to insure this security, the government must be such
that one citizen shall not fear another.
8. In the English law, by liberty is meant a privilege held by grant or
prescription, by which some men enjoy greater benefits than ordinary
subjects. A liberty is also a territory, with some extraordinary privilege.
9. By liberty or liberties, is understood a part of a town or city, as
the Northern Liberties of the city of Philadelphia. The same as Fanbourg.
(q.v.)