John Dalberg-Acton
John Dalberg-Acton was an English Baron of the 19th century and an admirer of the American system of federal government. A British liberal (not to be confused with an American liberal).
Speech Relevance[edit]
Lord Acton is mentioned in Reagan's first CPAC speech, 'A City Upon a Hill':
Lord Acton of England, who once said, "Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely," would say of that document, "They had solved with astonishing ease and unduplicated success two problems which had heretofore baffled the capacity of the most enlightened nations. They had contrived a system of federal government which prodigiously increased national power and yet respected local liberties and authorities, and they had founded it on a principle of equality without surrendering the securities of property or freedom." Never in any society has the preeminence of the individual been so firmly established and given such a priority.
