Our forefathers were right in wanting to be FREE, and so should we want to be.

Frédéric Bastiat
Complete Works, Volume 7, pages 235 to 236 (in French)
Jacques Bonhomme, June 11th, 1848

Jacques Bonhomme is a brand new newspaper, the first issue of which is dated “June 11th to June 15th, 1848”. It included this very short article titled “Freedom”. After setting up the scene with today’s quote, Frédéric Bastiat warns us that freedom can be kept or acquired only at a price but that such a disadvantage is not sufficient to reduce its desirability. He writes that “arguing against it about its drawbacks is similar to tell a man in a quagmire: Don’t get out of it because you cannot do it without some efforts”.

Then, he lists all the freedoms that constitute Liberty that need to be cherished and protected despite all the drawbacks they may present:

• freedom of consideration and conscience
• freedom of education
• freedom of the press
• freedom of labour
• freedom of association
• freedom of trade

For each of these freedoms, he shows how an ideal situation would allow to get away with it but also how impossible it is to reach such an ideal situation while getting away with it.