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The idea that virtue is a necessary pre-requisite to liberty, will be the subject of a future article, but to conclude this article, let us consider a quotation from John Locke, a philosopher on whom our founders greatly relied. He observed there can be no lasting liberty without law:

“[T]he end of law is not to abolish or restrain, but to preserve and enlarge freedom. For in all the states of created beings, capable of laws, where there is no law there is no freedom. For liberty is to be free from restraint and violence from others, which cannot be where there is no law; and is not, as we are told, ‘a liberty for every man to do what he lists.’ For who could be free, when every other man’s humour might domineer over him? But [“liberty” means] a liberty to dispose and order freely as he lists his person, actions, possessions, and his whole property within the allowance of those laws under which he is, and therein not to be subject to the arbitrary will of another, but freely follow his own.” (emphasis added.)33

Thanks for the post and the ping. I suggest that the reader (and the writer) ;-) look into the influence of Algernon Sidney this nation's founding. (Do a keyword search in FR on the name.) Here's one URL: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/938320/posts

One point of the previous link to Sidney: Virtuous law (and it's support of freedom) is more than merely the Lockeian double-negative of avoiding an impingement upon another's freedom. A fuller understanding how good law supports freedom comes from un-Lockeing law to let it fill its actual space and allow it to rest upon good sense. Pulling that slip-knot assertion into the straight strand of positive statement, virtuous law is that which honors God and His establishment of a world of people of free will. There are many demonstrations of this, including laws which establish such things as sewer systems and the Internet. ;-`

"Hamilton wanted to make sure that no faulty implications were drawn regarding the notion of the federal government having only limited delegated powers. He worried about the implications of total silence regarding a particular governmental power. On the one hand, he argued in several of the Federalist Papers that unless a particular power was specifically delegated in a positive way to the federal government, it did not reside with the federal government.20 But on the other hand, later some people with an expansionist federal mind-set could argue that unless that particular power were specifically denied to the federal government, it held that power by implication. Hamilton worried that attaching a Bill of Rights with specific prohibitions would bolster the latter erroneous argument made by those desirous of expanding federal authority."

Now, we have what Hamilton feared, the silence on an issue being taken as power held by implication.

We also have taxation in a state becoming a block to business and internal revenue generation.
NY has taxed cigarettes to teh point that those in state who smoke are goin 60 miles or more out of the way to pay a mere 1.50 less for them.
In other words, other states are getting the business that NY would like to have, but moronically taxed until it went to other states.
Same with gasoline.
Those close to the borders of the state go where the gasoline is cheapest- usually for my area, Montague NJ and Matamoras PA. (1.71 a gallon and 1.74 a gallon respectively as of two days ago.)
NY has an insane rolling sales tax.
In some areas, it's 7.25%, in others, 8.17%.
It varies from area to area within the state!
And, people see the difference it makes in the totals on their receipts.