Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States
Speech https://diplomatdc.wordpress.com/2010/06/05/the-libertarian-attack-on-abraham-lincoln-by-gregory-hilton/ (1859) <br class="br">1850s
Letter to Joseph Jones (28 November 1780) https://books.google.com/books?id=-IrnXiH2lbAC&pg=PA11&dq=%22Madison%22+%22coveting+that+liberty+for+which+we+have+paid%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CCYQ6AEwAGoVChMI_ab6o9vWxwIVCmg-Ch1jIgiE#v=onepage&q=%22Madison%22%20%22coveting%20that%20liberty%20for%20which%20we%20have%20paid%22&f=false <!--https://books.google.com/books?id=zkRKqnxjbAoC&pg=PA199&dq=%22liberate+and+make+soldiers+at+once+of%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CC4Q6AEwA2oVChMIyeyr5cPRxwIVDDU-Ch2IxQjN#v=onepage&q=%22liberate%20and%20make%20soldiers%20at%20once%20of%22&f=false--> <br class="br">1780s <br class="br">Context: Would it not be as well to liberate and make soldiers at once of the blacks themselves, as to make them instruments for enlisting white soldiers? It would certainly be more consonant to the principles of liberty which ought never to be lost sight of in a contest for liberty...
Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States
Speech https://diplomatdc.wordpress.com/2010/06/05/the-libertarian-attack-on-abraham-lincoln-by-gregory-hilton/ (1859) <br class="br">1850s
“Liberty, once lost, is lost forever. ”
John Quincy Adams (1767–1848) American politician, 6th president of the United States (in office from 1825 to 1829)
John Adams (1735–1826) 2nd President of the United States
Letter to Abigail Adams (17 July 1775)
1770s
Source: Letters of John Adams, Addressed to His Wife
John Austin (legal philosopher) (1790–1859) legal philosopher
Source: The Province of Jurisprudence Determined (1832), p. 224
“An enactment for the favour and liberty of the subject ought to have a liberal construction.”
William Henry Maule (1788–1858) British politician
Johnson v. Harris (1854), 3 W.R. 104.
John Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton (1834–1902) British politician and historian
The History of Freedom in Christianity (1877)
Friedrich Hayek (1899–1992) Austrian and British economist and Nobel Prize for Economics laureate
Source: 1960s–1970s, The Constitution of Liberty (1960), p. 99.
Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790) American author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, inventor, civic activist, …
Widely attributed to Franklin on the Internet, sometimes without the second sentence. It is not found in any of his known writings, and the word "lunch" is not known to have appeared anywhere in English literature until the 1820s, decades after his death. The phrasing itself has a very modern tone and the second sentence especially might not even be as old as the internet. Some of these observations are made in response to a query at Google Answers. http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=389308<br>The earliest known similar statements are: <br class="br">A democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. <br class="br">Gary Strand, Usenet group sci.environment, 23 April 1990. http://groups.google.com/group/sci.environment/msg/057b1c6389f4776f?dmode=source <br class="br">Democracy is not freedom. Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to eat for lunch. Freedom comes from the recognition of certain rights which may not be taken, not even by a 99% vote. <br class="br">Marvin Simkin, "Individual Rights", Los Angeles Times, 12 January 1992. http://articles.latimes.com/1992-01-12/local/me-358_1_jail-tax-individual-rights-san-diego <br class="br">Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner. <br class="br">James Bovard, Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty (1994), ISBN 0312123337, p. 333. <br class="br">Also cited as by Bovard in the Sacramento Bee (1994) http://www.giraffe.com/gr_wolves.html <br class="br">Misattributed <br class="br">Variant: Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote.