Words remain in usage while their meanings change without our noticing.  This is a particularly vexing problem when a word is intended to capture the central human value in United States history and continues to be the operative word in our social and political dialogues. “Liberty” (or freedom–the words are used interchangeably,) does not carry the same meaning today that it did for the founders.  The founders’ great experiment with liberty, one that would offer the most expansive freedom to more people than had ever experienced it before, and who would live under the lightest hand of government, hinged on one variable: the good character of the citizens and their representatives.