In May 1944, Learned Hand delivered a brief but timeless address in New York on "the spirit of liberty." Freedom, the great 2nd Circuit jurist warned, cannot be safeguarded by constitutions, laws or courts. Nor can there be freedom wherever "men recognize no check upon their freedom"--a road down which it becomes "the possession of only a savage few."

Instead, the judge said, the spirit of liberty lay in a combination of humility, curiosity, generosity and restraint. It was "the spirit which is not too sure that it is right," the one that "seeks to understand the mind of other men and women" and "weighs their interests alongside its own without bias." It was an elusive spirit, one that could exist only "as the conscience and courage of Americans create it." Yet it was also one "for which our young men are at this moment fighting and dying."

Hand gave his speech on the eve of D-Day. What is--or ought to be--the spirit of liberty on the eve of our 250th anniversary?

It is the spirit of public example, beginning with the character of the president; of presidential character defined by modesty, composure and integrity, which are necessary to offset the vast and sometimes terrifying powers of the office; of leadership that ensures the faithful execution of laws by submitting to them fully, transparently and unto the smallest detail; of statesmanship that never........

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