First principle
Ordered liberty, not maximum liberty
Freedom is the political space for responsible agency, not the removal of every limit.
Liberty matters because it permits people to seek truth, worship, form families, create enterprises, build associations, and accept responsibility. Formal choice alone cannot make citizens self-governing if addiction, debt, bureaucracy, or manipulation command their lives.
A free commonwealth must preserve the moral ecology of liberty: families, habits, property, worship, education, public order, and associations capable of forming people who can govern themselves. The state protects that space; it cannot manufacture virtue.
Specific references
Read alongside the principle.
Federalist No. 51
James Madison
Because power is exercised by fallible people, authority must check authority.
Open sourceDemocracy in America
Alexis de Tocqueville
Local self-government and voluntary association as the practical schooling of free citizens.
Open sourceTen Conservative Principles
Russell Kirk
Prudence, continuity, property, voluntary community, and restraints upon power.
Open source