2. _Personal and political liberty_—freedom from political tyranny and oppression.
3. _Economic liberty_—freedom to use brain, brawn, and initiative to earn the best living possible.
4. _Intellectual liberty_—freedom of opinion, speech, assembly, and press.
5. _Cultural liberty_—freedom to establish institutions and to practice certain traditions and customs.
The _search for human freedom_ can be advanced, with historical warrant, as the basic reason for the presence in this country of about 130,000,000 people. Without question, this is the common denominator of our democracy.
The vanguard of those seeking refuge from religious persecution arrived on the Mayflower and settled in Plymouth, Massachusetts. John Winthrop founded the Massachusetts Bay Colony as a refuge for Puritans. Maryland, later on, became the haven for persecuted Catholics. Rhode Island was founded by Roger Williams and his group of independent, religious free thinkers. Here, the Quakers found a ready welcome and the Jews, driven out of Europe, were allowed to build their synagogues. Toward the end of the seventeenth century, William Penn and his Quaker followers settled in Pennsylvania and cultivated the most friendly relationships with Indians, colonists, and new settlers alike.
To Manhattan Island and South Carolina came the French Huguenots, a group of French Protestants, whose guarantee of religious liberty had been revoked by the Edict of Nantes. During the nineteenth century, one of the early acts of the Mormons after settling in Utah was to contribute money toward building a Catholic church.
To escape political tyranny and oppression, thousands of people left their homes and crossed the Atlantic. Following their unsuccessful rebellion against the English, the Irish came in large numbers. So did the Germans when the Revolution of 1848 failed. Likewise, the Jews left Russia toward the close of the nineteenth century in order to escape intolerable conditions.
Among the great champions of personal liberty has been Thomas Paine, who turned the tide of victory during the Revolutionary War when he declared, “This is the cause for which we are ready to suffer and to die—Freedom for ourselves and the rest of the world.” Another outstanding champion of personal liberty was Carl Schurz, one of the German forty-eighters, who supported men of principles and worthy causes regardless of political affiliations.