Excerpt from Discourse Before the Literary Societies of Hamilton College: Clinton, July 27, 1847 I know not how I can better perform the service to which I have been invited, than by attempting to define and illustrate the true idea of civil liberty. The nature of the occasion, the character and objects of these academic societies, and the respect due to the learned, the thoughtful, and the earnest, who honor the occasion with their presence, induce me to believe that an unadorned, but perhaps not entirely uninstructive disquisition on some grave theme like that which I have announced, will be at once more suitable and more acceptable than any thing else which I could offer. But does not every body know already what civil liberty is? And especially in this country, where we have so long enjoyed it in its highest perfection, does not every citizen understand well enough what it is that he enjoys, what it is that he boasts of? What need then of attempting to define and illustrate the idea of civil liberty? The question is a fair one, and the answer to it will form a suitable introduction to the disquisition upon which I propose to enter. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.