“This approach emphasizes what was once familiar enough to all Americans—and what we are now in danger of forgetting—that government derives its power from men; that rights of life and liberty are inalienable; that these rights are not something that government graciously confers upon men, but things no government can take away from men.”

—  Henry Steele Commager

Source: Freedom, Loyalty, Dissent (1954), p. 5

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Henry Steele Commager 27
American historian 1902–1998

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