Henry Campbell Black Quote - Liberty Quotes Blog

"Liberty, whether natural, civil, or political, is the lawful power in the individual to exercise his corresponding rights. It is greatly favored in law."

by:	Henry Campbell Black (1860-1927) Founder of Black's Law Dictionary, the definitive legal dictionary first published in 1891, editor of The Constitutional Review (1917-1927)
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Categories:	Civil Rights, Individual Rights, Law, Liberty, Politics, Power
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Reader comments about this quote:

The right to life, liberty and property, the right NOT to be coerced are natural rights. Unless of course you are trained to an ant hill mentality. -- J Carlton, Calgary 2
Amen, J Carlton. -- jim k, Austin 1
This sounds like great poetry but I think he failed to add that your liberty ends at every others nose, and the space in between is a no mans land. Your liberty diminishes the further away from your nose and the closer it is to others. It is like air and water. The deeper you go into the ocean the less oxygen there is and the higher you go into the atmosphere the less oxgen there is . Somewhere in the middle from 100 to 50 feet below the surface of the water to 5,000 feet above life flourishes. Maybe liberty needs the same kind of balancing act between the ME idea and the OTHER(S) idea. I don't think the construction of this quote is that great. -- Wafler, Smith 4
Liberty is a natural law observation and consequence. Civil and political ties to liberty are but extended misdirected administrative constructs. Liberty, freedom, natural law and inalienable rights were once greatly favored at man's administration of law in a land far, far away, in a time that has been long since forgotten. -- Mike, Norwalk 2
Waffler, when a mans nose meets the nose of another who has the right is determined by the right, not by the guy who has the biggest nose or not by a majority of big noses as your democracy operates. The protection of the right for all individuals wins out at the end of the day and not the majority who just choose to put their money in a pot which is used to buy off politicians whose main duty is to protect the rights laid out and those not laid out in our Constitution but exist nonetheless. A cursory study of the oath of office and its history proves this out. A deeper study reveals the criminality of members of congress that they've been practicing for a very long time. -- Anon 3
We need to vote carefully and rid ourselves of the parasites feeding on the lives of others. We have certainly erred in our voting patterns and have very little time to repair...but repair must be swift or we will not experience this country as Black had presumed while writing his dictionary or editing the Constitutional Review. -- aa, hb
Anon, pure liberty is not about rights. Liberty recoginzes no rights. To be truly free to do anything you wish is a pure liberty that does not exist except for the most arrogant of individuals. Right has nothing to do with, your liberty comes up against resistance when it encounters other peoples liberties. That is what these series of quotes is all about, wisdom, virtue and the situation of folk living and relating together. We are certainly not at liberty to do many things our pioneer fathers did or do them the same way that they did. Liberty is often about what you can and cannot get away with based on the prevailing social, moral, physical environment etc. -- Waffler, Smith 5
Henry Campbell Black is right and these words of wisdom do indeed need heeding. Confusing Liberty with Power results in the kind of circular argument Waffler is trying to make. If a lone individual cannot be trusted with liberty how can a group? How can a group have unlimited liberty but individuals not? True liberty requires the respect of each other's rights -- that is called Justice. When rights are thrown out the window and liberty is traded for power, you have despotism, whether by a majority or a minority. All of us have different knowledge, skills, and abilities (i.e. 'powers') -- the question is whether I may exercise my power in my own way as long as it does not violate the rights of another -- in a free country, the answer is an unresounding 'yes,' and American Common Law upholds it. -- E Archer, NYC 3
As a normal post of the ole Waffler, he once again demonstrated he doesn't know his asymptote from a hole in his X axis ;-) Liberty is not what IRS employees, or other socialists would redefine but rather, Liberty is: “The power of acting as one thinks fit, without any restraint or control, except from the laws of nature.” (Bouvier’s Law Dictionary) Liberty is the “exemption from extraneous control. The power of the will, in its moral freedom, to follow the dictates of its unrestricted choice, and to direct the external acts of the individual without restraint, coercion, or control from other persons. Liberty is the right which nature gives to all mankind of disposing of their persons and property after the manner they judge most consistent with their happiness, on condition of their acting within the limits of the law of nature, and so as not to interfere with an equal exercise of the same rights by other men.” (Black’s Law Dictionary 1st ed.). Clarifying original fact, natural law intent, and de jure jurisprudence: “Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add 'within the limits of the law,' because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual.” (Thomas Jefferson) “The Natural Liberty of Man is to be free from any Superior Power on Earth, and not to be under the Will or Legislative Authority of Man, but to have only the Law of Nature for his Rule.” (John Locke - second most quoted source for creation of the Constitution) “Personal liberty, or the Right to enjoyment of life and liberty, is one of the fundamental or natural Rights, which has been protected by its inclusion as a guarantee in the various constitutions, which is not derived from, or dependent on, the U.S. Constitution, which may not be submitted to a vote and may not depend on the outcome of an election. It is one of the most sacred and valuable Rights, as sacred as the Right to private property ⋯ and is regarded as inalienable.” (16 C.J.S., Constitutional Law, Sect.202, p.987). -- Mike, Norwalk 3
Waffler portrays yet another socialist's misunderstanding. A right: is tangible matter’s inherent and inalienable preeminent entitlement - prerogative to act without restriction in/at each and every, any and all way(s) within/at justice, natural law/the law of nature, equity, life, liberty, property and happiness. Rights are unique to the individual (emanating from the “being”, rights are NOT, nor can they be: social, collective, or dependent on others). Rights are Divinely endowed by nature’s Creator (lawfully / legally outside corporeal man’s legislative, executive and judicial authority, prowess and power to adversely regulate, injuriously affect or otherwise deleteriously act upon). -- Mike, Norwalk 2
-- Mary, MI
"Greatly favored" I would say, spoken by a gentleman, in a polite manner the tri-cord of understanding, well understood, able, to still ruffle feathers of emotional private opinion. -- Ronw13, Oregon 2
Liberty, when dealing with a juvenile mentality can be quite precarious. To free yourself from harm involves constant examination of the relational environment or what you might call the environment of relations. Constant personal development and trying to change the living circumstance involves a lot of challenge. -- Fredrick William Sillik, Anytown 1

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