berg80
Diamond Member
- Oct 28, 2017
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"Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
The common misconception is it has to do with sacrificing some freedoms for being protected from harm.
SIEGEL: What's the exact quotation?
WITTES: The exact quotation, which is from a letter that Franklin is believed to have written on behalf of the Pennsylvania General Assembly, reads, those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
SIEGEL: And what was the context of this remark?
WITTES: He was writing about a tax dispute between the Pennsylvania General Assembly and the family of the Penns, the proprietary family of the Pennsylvania colony who ruled it from afar. And the legislature was trying to tax the Penn family lands to pay for frontier defense during the French and Indian War. And the Penn family kept instructing the governor to veto. Franklin felt that this was a great affront to the ability of the legislature to govern. And so he actually meant purchase a little temporary safety very literally. The Penn family was trying to give a lump sum of money in exchange for the General Assembly's acknowledging that it did not have the authority to tax it.
Put in contemporary context, the misconception could be interpreted to mean people who would give their government the right to deny habeas corpus in order to have accused (BUT NOT CONVICTED) men illegally deported to a foreign gulag deserve neither the right to habeas or temporary safety.
The common misconception is it has to do with sacrificing some freedoms for being protected from harm.
SIEGEL: What's the exact quotation?
WITTES: The exact quotation, which is from a letter that Franklin is believed to have written on behalf of the Pennsylvania General Assembly, reads, those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
SIEGEL: And what was the context of this remark?
WITTES: He was writing about a tax dispute between the Pennsylvania General Assembly and the family of the Penns, the proprietary family of the Pennsylvania colony who ruled it from afar. And the legislature was trying to tax the Penn family lands to pay for frontier defense during the French and Indian War. And the Penn family kept instructing the governor to veto. Franklin felt that this was a great affront to the ability of the legislature to govern. And so he actually meant purchase a little temporary safety very literally. The Penn family was trying to give a lump sum of money in exchange for the General Assembly's acknowledging that it did not have the authority to tax it.
Put in contemporary context, the misconception could be interpreted to mean people who would give their government the right to deny habeas corpus in order to have accused (BUT NOT CONVICTED) men illegally deported to a foreign gulag deserve neither the right to habeas or temporary safety.
