Goodwin Liu
The Academy’s founders understood well the dangers of concentrated power and authoritarian rule. They recognized that a representative government needs checks and balances, the separation of powers, individual rights, and an independent judiciary–“a government of laws, not of men,” in the words of John Adams, one of the Academy’s founders.1 They also grasped the essential role of free inquiry in sustaining democracy, as well as the importance of liberty as a precondition for the pursuit of knowledge. That vision is captured in the Academy’s seal and motto, Sub Libertate Florent: the arts and sciences “flourish under freedom.”
Today these basic principles are under threat. We are striving to preserve our democratic inheritance amidst incursions on the research enterprise and cultural institutions, attacks on the courts and the legal profession, and attempts to curtail freedom of the press. The experiences of other nations show that concerted efforts to undermine academic freedom and the rule of law often pave the way for autocracy.
In this moment of challenge, we call on our history and the voices of our founders to affirm the fundamental values that have guided the Academy’s work of honoring excellence and “cultivat[ing] every art and science which may tend to advance the interest, honor, dignity, and happiness of a free, independent, and virtuous people.” Those values–among them, commitment to the rule of law, defense of free expression and inquiry, and the pursuit of knowledge–have served the Academy and our nation well.
To the founders, the rule of law depended on the independence of the judiciary and the legal profession, a principle tested and affirmed when John Adams defended British soldiers accused of murder during the Boston Massacre of 1770. Despite intense public hostility, Adams maintained that justice must rest on evidence and impartiality, not public opinion. In doing so, he demonstrated that America was capable of self-governance under the rule of law. In our own time, his example remains a powerful reminder of what it means to have “a government of laws, not of men.”
Alexander Hamilton’s reflections in Federalist No. 78 made an additional point. He argued that an independent judiciary was “requisite to guard the Constitution and the rights of individuals” from transient passions. The judiciary, he observed, possesses “neither FORCE nor WILL, but merely judgment,” and thus depends upon the willingness of public officials to respect the authority of judicial decisions and uphold the rule of law.2 That fragile dependence remains. Another Academy member, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, writing more than two centuries later, warned that “judicial independence doesn’t happen all by itself. . . . [S]tatutes and constitutions don’t protect judicial independence: People do.”3
Freedom of inquiry and public support for education were no less founding principles for our forebearers. The importance of education was written into the earliest official documents. The Massachusetts Constitution of 1780, largely penned by Adams, stated:
Wisdom, and knowledge, as well as virtue, diffused generally among the body of the people, being necessary for the preservation of their rights and liberties; and as these depend on spreading the opportunities and advantages of education in the various parts of the country, and among the different orders of the people, it shall be the duty of legislatures and magistrates, in all future periods of this commonwealth, to cherish the interests of literature and the sciences.4
A free people, he believed, could remain free only if educated to reason, discern, and debate. Academy member Benjamin Rush in 1786 expanded on this principle, asserting that “Freedom can only exist in the society of knowledge. Without learning, men are incapable of knowing their rights, and there learning is confined to a few people, liberty can be neither equal nor universal.”5
That warning resonates today. In an era of declining trust in knowledge and expertise, education is not a luxury but a safeguard. The founders understood that liberty requires more than freedom from coercion; it requires the capacity to think critically and to pursue truth. Renewing that capacity means investing not only in schools and research but also in civic dialogue, in spaces where disagreement can be aired with respect and a genuine desire for shared inquiry. As James Madison envisioned, “Liberty & Learning, each leaning on the other for their mutual & surest support,” must once again be joined.6
The founders also recognized that the pursuit of knowledge itself requires protection. From early state constitutions to the First Amendment, freedom of thought, expression, and inquiry in the context of education and research was enshrined as a bulwark against tyranny. The Academy’s history reflects an enduring struggle to protect intellectual independence from political interference. Its role in convening debates over evolutionary theory in the mid-nineteenth century is one example. In addition, when fear and suspicion chilled scientific discourse during the McCarthy era, Academy members stood in defense of physicist Edward Condon, condemning the House Un-American Activities Committee’s baseless accusations. Their intervention affirmed that the suppression of inquiry endangers both science and society.
Finally, the founders understood that public support for research is essential to national prosperity. In October 1780, a group of Academy members undertook an expedition to Penobscot Bay, Maine, to study a solar eclipse–an effort made “though involved in all the calamities and distresses of severe war” and financed by the state of Massachusetts.7 The undertaking reflected a belief that knowledge and scientific discovery are public goods. Later, Academy member Vannevar Bush’s 1945 report Science, the Endless Frontier set forth a vision for the advancement of knowledge through federal support for basic research. As he noted, basic research is “the pacemaker of technological progress.”8 The partnership between government and research institutions has since produced transformative advances in health, technology, and security.
The work of democracy is slow, demanding, and often imperfect. Yet it is never-ending and must be renewed by each generation. In 1944, judge, philosopher, and Academy member Learned Hand addressed an audience of over one million people at a naturalization celebration in New York’s Central Park. He captured the essence of the democratic spirit when he said: “Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it.” Importantly, the “spirit of liberty” that Judge Hand spoke of was, in his words, “not freedom to do as one likes. . . . [It] is the spirit which is not too sure that it is right; the spirit of liberty is the spirit which seeks to understand the mind of other men and women; the spirit of liberty is the spirit which weighs their interests alongside its own without bias” and insists that “the least shall be heard and considered side by side with the greatest.” It was in that spirit–of understanding others, embracing doubt, and fostering empathy–that he urged Americans to “pledge our faith in the glorious destiny of our beloved country.”9
Democracy is not self-perpetuating. It must be continually practiced, nurtured, repaired, and renewed. In our current moment, this renewal requires a reaffirmation of the freedoms and the rule of law that enable our democracy to succeed. The founders’ conviction that the arts and sciences flourish under freedom was not naïve optimism but disciplined hope: the belief that a constitutional democracy can and must be guided by the pursuit of knowledge and by a practice of liberty attentive to the perspectives of others. These commitments inform our efforts to build a civic culture that embraces collective purpose, resists divisive tactics, and upholds the foundational principles that have enabled America to thrive and endure.