Founders: Liberty and Justice are more important than Security

Bowers:

We did not declare our independence from the British because they were failing to keep us safe. Instead, we declared independence from the British because they were denying us our rights. In other words, democracy, liberty and justice were the overriding concerns in forming the nation, not security. Declaring our independence in order to secure our liberty actually put us at great risk, considering that a higher percentage of Americans died in the War of Independence than in any other war in our nation's history. The country was formed quite squarely by putting our liberty on a higher priority level than our security.