Lord Acton

John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton

Lord Acton (John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton, 1834–1902) was a leading 19th-century historian in the classical-liberal tradition. He watched the growth of the United States with great interest, and lamented the decline of states' rights and federalism. While he was a prolific writer and speaker, his great work, a history of freedom, was never completed.

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Mises Daily Lord Acton
It is remarkable that the Constitution was little trusted or admired by the wisest and most illustrious of its founders, and that its severest and most desponding critics were those whom Americans revere as the fathers of their country.
Mises Daily Lord Acton
The motive was empire on one side and self-government on the other. It was a question between liberty and authority, between government by consent and government by force.