Man was born free, with natural rights to those freedom. Man is meant to be neither slave nor servant to any man or government.
When men are free, they can attain their highest levels of development. Free individuals achieve great things, produce valuable products and services at the highest levels of skill and efficiency.
A society of free individuals is the most prosperous and peaceful society. All individuals benefit when men are free, especially the poor who have the chance to grow economically and benefit from the prosperity created by free individuals.
Our individual liberty was identified as an essential right in the United States Declaration of Independence:
"We hold these truths to be self-evident,
that all men are created equal,
that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights,
that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed"
When Men are free to live with the full power of their unalienable rights, they produce the most prosperity for themselves and create a society that is at its peak prosperity and at its most peaceful.
Societies can trample on individual liberty through governments or through the arbitrary acts of lawless men and women - even elected officials acting outside the rule of law imposed on them by our constitution. When states and people deny liberty to individuals, societies become less peaceful, less prosperous and less moral.
The Constitution of the United States of America was won by partiots fighing to throw off the oppressive yoke of a dictator and an unaccoubtable government. That same constitution protects our Individual Liberty today. It does so by establishing a limited government with basic functions designed to place our liberty paramount for current and future citizens of America:
"We the People of the United States,
in Order to form a more perfect Union,
establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility,
provide for the common defence,
promote the general Welfare, and
secure the Blessings of Liberty
to ourselves and our Posterity,
do ordain and establish this
Constitution for the United States of America."