The Four Foundations of Freedom

According to the American Founders, the Four Foundations of Freedom are:

1. Private Virtue
2. Public Virtue
3. Widespread Education
4. Auxiliary Precautions

The Founders consistently taught that, in the absence of these foundations, no society can survive, or at least maintain its freedom.

Private virtue means being a person of integrity; being honest in your dealings with others, being faithful in your duties to your family, controlling your appetites, etc.

Public virtue means to voluntarily sacrifice personal benefit for the good of society.

For example, George Washington served two terms as President even when, as he was accepting the post, he wrote that it “would be the greatest sacrifice of my personal feelings and wishes that ever I have been called upon to make.”

Contrary to our modern conception of education, widespread education to the Founders didn’t mean job training; it meant classical, liberal education designed to teach individuals how to think, not what to think (see A Thomas Jefferson Education by Oliver DeMille).

And finally, auxiliary precautions are a society’s forms of government that ideally protect life, liberty, property, and the pursuit of happiness. Auxiliary precautions, as outlined in The Federalist Papers and other writings, include the following:

1. Legitimate Foundation
2. Legitimate Authority
3. Legitimate Role
4. Separation of Powers
5. Checks
6. Balances
7. Federalism
8. Written Constitution
9. Enumerated Limited Powers
10. Periodic Elections
11. Electoral College
12. Factionalization

Why It Matters

What matters most about the four foundations is their order of importance. The Founders understood that no free government, however enlightened, can survive unless the people that it governs are moral and virtuous.

Constitutional government is nothing but words on paper unless its principles are alive in the souls of the people; free nations get the government that they deserve.

When a free people fails to internalize and exhibit public and private virtue, no government on earth can keep them from destroying themselves. On the other hand, people who cultivate and maintain virtue and value their principles above their privileges enjoy unlimited prosperity, peace, and happiness.

As Benjamin Franklin said:

“Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters.”

James Madison added:

“We have staked the whole future of American civilization, not upon the power of government, far from it. We have staked the future of all our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind for self-government, upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God.”

In a free government, the People get the government that they deserve. The only way to maintain freedom is to maintain private and public virtue.

*****************************

Stephen Palmer is a book writer for mission-driven leaders, a small business lead generation website design architect and persuasive website copywriter, a co-founder of The Center for Social Leadership, and the author of Uncommon Sense: A Common Citizen’s Guide to Rebuilding America.

He co-authored the New York Times bestseller Killing Sacred Cows: Overcoming the Financial Myths that are Destroying Your Prosperity, as well as Hub Mentality: Shifting from Business Transactions to Community Interaction.

He is a liberal-arts graduate of George Wythe University and a graduate and faculty member of the “non-traditional business school” Wizard Academy.

Stephen resides in Round Rock, Texas with his gorgeous wife Karina, awesome son Alex, and princess daughters Libby, Avery, and Laela.

Subscribe to Stephen’s blog and contact him at stephen [at] leadershipwriter [dot] com.