Liberty versus Government?

Occasionally, people running for political office appeal for votes by describing government and liberty as antagonistic opposites. Liberty, said one said recently, comes from God, not from government.

Whether liberty is a creation of God is not an issue here. Let us put that aside and recognize that liberty is at least in part an earthly phenomenon that has a historical dimension, that it is has been created by people who have established laws and that it has been defended by people trying to uphold those laws. In other words, those who claim that liberty is necessarily something apart from government are wrong.

Liberty is today denied people by some rulers, and centuries ago emperors, monarchs and other conquerors denied people liberty. In England a political party, the Whigs, contributed to liberty by their support for constitutional monarchism and opposition to absolute rule. The English philosopher John Locke (1632-1704) contributed to liberty with his rebuttal to arguments for rule by the Divine Right of kings. Locke also argued that a modern society to function well had to be unified by tolerance. And there were those who followed him, believing that a rule of law and government contribute to liberty by maintaining tolerance -- by protecting people from each other.