Virtue and the Blessings of Liberty
Liberty Is Not Licence for Vice
In 1796, as George Washington prepared to step down after two terms as the first President, he delivered his famous Farewell Address. In this political testament, he declared:
“Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness—these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. … Let it simply be asked, where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice? … Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.”
Washington emphasized that America’s future depended not only on its laws and institutions but on the moral character of its citizens. Like most Founding Fathers, he believed virtue was necessary for liberty and that true self-government required self-discipline, moral responsibility, and both public and private virtue.
If virtue was once seen as foundational to American liberty, why do many modern conservatives seem to have moved away from this principle?
A few weeks ago, The Dispatch, a conservative media company founded in 2019, hired a transgender contributor. This seems like an odd choice for a news outlet known for being “principled conservatives.” Curiously, the move received little pushback from figures who are usually quick to warn against right-wing excesses and dangerous associations. Notably, the hire was also praised by senior editor David French, even going as far as to use the man’s preferred pronouns.
While this may seem inconsistent with David French’s positions from a decade ago, it aligns perfectly with his recent commentary on “liberty.” In 2023, French infamously characterized Drag Queen Story Hour as a “blessing of liberty,” exemplifying a broader debate that has dominated conservative discourse in recent years: the relationship between liberty and virtue.
This dilemma extends beyond French’s remarks. Right-leaning libertarians defend amateur pornography as an expression of freedom. Meanwhile, the Cato Institute has defended sex work as legitimate labor. Though these examples cluster around sexual freedom, they reveal a disturbing presupposition creeping into the right: that liberty must include the freedom to engage in vice.
And then there are questions of the proper understanding of liberty. For example, managing editor at the Babylon Bee, Joel Berry, said in a now-deleted tweet, “Virtue is not possible without liberty.” This turns the Founders’ view on its head. To them, liberty was not the precondition for virtue, but the reward for it. American liberty was understood to be impossible without virtue. Furthermore, they believed that liberty was the condition necessary to do what one ought to do, and never meant to be a license for vice.
This has significant implications because it brings into question journalists like David French, who believe vice is a “blessing of liberty,” or that pornography is simply a private matter with no public consequences. Indiscriminate freedom was not what the Founding Fathers had in mind—liberty only exists within the moral limits of natural law. While this list is not exhaustive, below is a small sampling of the general consensus among our Founding Fathers and beyond.
In Federalist No. 55, Madison discusses the necessity of virtue among the people for republican government to function. He states, “Republican government presupposes the existence of these qualities in a higher degree than any other form.” Without virtue, republican government will fail. In Federalist No. 57, Madison argues that the aim of every political constitution is “first to obtain for rulers men who possess most wisdom to discern and most virtue to pursue the common good of society.” Virtue represents the essential moral integrity that enables both rulers and citizens to prioritize collective well-being over personal interests.
John Adams makes this point explicitly in his letter to Mercy Otis Warren: “Public virtue is the only foundation of republics. There must be a positive passion for the public good.” This understanding explains why the Founders prioritized protecting the natural family as a public good. Adams reinforced this principle: “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” The Constitution required citizens with personal virtue and moral restraint, as limited government depended on people’s ability to govern themselves through internalized ethical principles rather than external legal constraints.
In striking contrast to Joel Berry’s deleted tweet, Benjamin Franklin said in his letter to Messrs, “Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom.” Franklin believed self-governance and liberty can only thrive in a society where people possess strong moral character. He went further: “As nations become more corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters.” Virtue is necessary for a nation; otherwise, a corrupt populace will eventually require the strong arm of government to maintain order and restore pubic virtue if it is lost.
Early Founding documents reinforced this principle. The Virginia Declaration of Rights of 1776 states that “no free government or the blessings of liberty can be preserved to any people but by firm adherence to justice, moderation, temperance, frugality, and virtue.” Note the contrast with French’s understanding: where French sees the blessings of liberty including public vice, the Founders believed these blessings could only be obtained through “firm adherence” to virtue. The Pennsylvania and Vermont Constitutions encouraged laws promoting virtue and preventing vice. The Continental Congress encouraged true religion and good morals as “the only solid foundations for public liberty and happiness.” Virtue precedes liberty and happiness.
The Founding generation established a clear causal relationship: virtue must precede and sustain liberty, as they understood that a republic’s survival depends not merely on institutional design, but on the moral character of its citizens, who must willingly subordinate private interests to the common good. As John Witherspoon repeatedly taught, “true religion is the fountain of virtue,” and civil liberty cannot be maintained without both. This understanding led Witherspoon to declare that “he is the best friend to American liberty, who is most sincere and active in promoting true and undefiled religion.” A moral foundation is necessary for securing rights. America was dependent not just on constitutional mechanisms but also on the cultivation of civic virtue among its citizens, and the Founders recognized that such virtue could only be sustained through religious instruction and piety. More so, the founding framework fundamentally challenges the modern classical liberal assumptions that prioritize individual autonomy over collective responsibility. Ironically, the Founders believed that a lack of virtue could lead to more governmental power—the very thing classical liberals want to avoid! Even the famously “deist” Thomas Jefferson believed that true religion (including its prohibitions and prescriptions) was the fount from which springs true virtue.
The blessings of liberty are far greater and more fulfilling than David French’s skewed view that promotes vice. The Founders envisioned something much more meaningful; they didn’t believe liberty was a license to encourage vice. One thinks of the Apostle Paul’s words in Romans 6:2: “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?” The Christian’s freedom in Christ was not intended as license to sin, and our liberty as Americans was never intended to be license for public vice.
The blessing of liberty is not that we now have the freedom to pursue vice, but the freedom to pursue happiness within a moral framework. You have the freedom to start a business without tyrannical overregulation—but not to deceive customers. You have the freedom to live where you want and find a spouse in accordance with nature. And you have the freedom to create a conservative media outlet. But the blessing of liberty is not intended to be abused to promote vice.
The distinction between private and public virtue remains important. But it’s hard to imagine making progress if supposedly Christian conservatives can’t even protect the institutions our founders believed were worth protecting. Principled conservatives who compromise on these fundamentals are neither principled nor conservative.
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