The most profoundly revolutionary achievement of the United States of America
was the subordination of society to moral law. The principle of man’s
individual rights represented the extension of morality into the social
system—as a limitation on the power of the state, as man’s protection against
the brute force of the collective, as the subordination of might to right.
The United States was the first moral society in history. All previous
systems had regarded man as a sacrificial means to the ends of others, and
society as an end in itself. The United States regarded man as an end in
himself, and society as a means to the peaceful, orderly, voluntary
co-existence of individuals. All previous systems had held that man’s life
belongs to society, that society can dispose of him in any way it pleases, and
that any freedom he enjoys is his only by favor, by the permission of
society, which may be revoked at any time. The United States held that man’s
life is his by right (which means: by moral principle and by his nature),
that a right is the property of an individual, that society as such has no
rights, and that the only moral purpose of a government is the protection of
individual rights.