In Thomas Jefferson’s Second Inaugural Address of March 4, 1805 he boasted of having reduced the size and cost of government enough to eliminate a number of “vexatious” internal taxes which he feared might grow in number and eventually be applied to other goods:
In the preface to a series of letters written to a young English nobleman in 1793, Vicesimus Knox declares his own love of liberty and explains how the next generation of English aristocrats might reconcile true liberty and peace with their social station, and so avoid what was happening to the aristocracy in France:
In 2004, in the wake of the tsunamis which detroyed so many lives in south Asia, both governments and private individuals have donated funds to help in the relief work. A French classical liberal, Ambroise Clément, from the mid-19th century, ponders the difference between the two types of charitable giving:
In 1755 an earthquake and tsunami hit the city of Lisbon, at that time the 4th largest city in Europe. Voltaire used the event in his philosophic tale Candide to argue that this is not the best of all possible worlds:
In a collection of essays edited by Thomas Mackay over 100 years ago, there is Frederick Millar’s interesting attack on the evils of the government monopoly Post Office at Christmas-time:
Thomas Paine is well known for having penned a number of patriotic songs during the period of the American Revolution such as “The Liberty Tree”, “The Boston Patriotic Song”, and the one - “Hail Great Republic” (which is to be sung to the tune of “Rule Britannia”).
In The Principles of Ethics, Herbert Spencer has a section in which he has something to say about the ethics of nutrition and the preference of many to denounce the excess swallowing of liquids rather than of solids:
Erasmus discusses the merits of feasting with two friends, Austin and Christian. After some witty repartee Austin concludes that Christian is a true “Philosopher of the Kitchen”:
One of the many articles translated from the French which appeared in Lalor’s Cyclopedia in 1884. This one from Louis Wolowski and Pierre Émile Levasseur is a spirited defense of the natural right to property:
In one of the last sections he wrote in the multi-volume History of England, David Hume steps back to survey the entire sweep of English constitutional development. One of the key factors in leading to the creation of English liberty was the ending of serfdom:
James Bryce discusses the office of President and the manner of his election in a Chapter on “The President”:
Published in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War, Mises’ magnum opus, Human Action (1949) contained a chapter on "The Economics of War" in which he laments the killing of innocents:
In his Philosophical Dictionary, Voltaire makes a connection between economic prosperity and religious toleration in England:
Thomas Gordon, one of the co-authors of Cato’s Letters, introduced his multi-volume translation of the works of Tacitus with a number of Discourses supposedly on Tacitus but which he also used to criticize the behavior of the contemporary British government:
This sonnet is striking for its use of mercantile and legal metaphors, perhaps drawing upon William Shakespeare’s own experience as an entrepreneur:
The prophet Samuel tells the people of Israel what lies in store for them if they have their wish granted that a King rule over them:
The Gospels draw heavily on the Book of Isaiah for a utopic view of the world. The famous “swords to plowshares” quote is but one of its famous proclamations:
In one of the 150 poems, songs, and prayers from the Old Testament’s Book of Psalms, King David writes:
Voltaire’s poem celebrating the fact that he was living in an age of developing commerce and markets:
In 1820, John Taylor was concerned that the promise of the American constitution, to radically limit the power of the central state, was being undermined by interventionist economic policies:
In a lecture given to the Freedom School in Colorado Springs in 1963, the Italian liberal jurist Bruno Leoni examines the differences between satisfying needs through voluntary cooperation (i.e. the market) and coercion (i.e. voting):
Thomas Hodgskin was forced to leave the British Navy after being physically punished for complaining about the brutal treatment of sailors who been impressed (conscripted):
After a series of debates in parliament in early 1628, Sir Edward Coke wrote and got adopted one of the founding documents securing the liberties of Englishmen:
In the Foreword to the Liberty Fund edition of Algernon Sidney’s Discourses, Thomas G. West discusses the importance of Sidney’s work to the American Founding Fathers:
In his magisterial history of the American Revolution, Bernhard Knollenberg remarks upon the problems facing the Continental Congress in September 1774: