Liberty

1.

Freedom; exemption from extraneous control. The power of the will, in its moral freedom, to follaw the dictates of its unrestricted choice, and to direct the external acts of the individual without restraint, coercion, or control from other persons, Civil liberty is the greatest amount of absolute liberty which can, in the nature of things, be equally possessed by every citizen in astate. Bouvier. ‘The term is frequently used to denote the amount of absolute liberty which is actually enjoyed by the various citizens under the government and laws of the state as administered. 1 Bl. Comm. 125. ee Civil liberty is guarantied protection against interference with the interests and rights held dear and important by large classes of civilized men, or by all the memvers of a state, together with an effectual share in the making and administration of the laws, as the best apparatus to secure that SS protection.

Lieb. Civil Lib. 24.

Natural 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.

Burlamaqui,c.3, § 15; 1 BI.

Comm. 125, Personal liberty consists in the power of locomotion, of changing situation, of removing one’s person to whatever place one’s inclination may direct, without imprisonment or restraint unless by due course of law.

1 Bl. Comm. 134.

Political liberty is an effectual share in the making and administration of the laws.

Lieb. Civil Lib. 2.

The word also means a franchise or personal privilege, being some part of the sovereign power, vested in an individual, either by grant or prescription. ————— 3. In a derivative sense, the term denotes the place, district, or boundaries within which sense, the term-is commonly used in the plural; as “the liberties of the city,” “the northern liberties of Philadelphia.”