Freedom is about the body. The Founders knew this, but they knew little about the human organism. John Locke, an English philosopher important to American constitutional thought, treated health as an element of good government. Thomas Jefferson thought that after ethics, health was the most important thing in life. The Founders bemoaned the epidemics that plagued their young republic, but they had no remedies. We do. George Washington inoculated his troops the best way he knew how. We know better. He died after being bled by his doctors. We wouldn’t do such a thing.
