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However, both Italian Unification and American reunification raised difficult

questions for liberals, namely how nationalism related to freedom.

For Mazzini, this wasn’t a problem. He was a liberal nationalist. By this view,
individual freedom and national freedom were in perfect harmony. He envisaged a
Europe of nation-states in which all citizens could live in the full enjoyment of their
democratic and national freedoms. There was no conflict between the individual and
the nation: indeed, the creation of their nation state would both guarantee and
enlarge their freedom. Nor would there be any conflict between different nations:

each nationality would respect and indeed celebrate the rights of every other
nationality to freely express its particular genius. This was the essence of Mazzini’s
th
liberal nationalism which rose to prominence in Europe the first half of the 19
century: individual and national freedom were viewed as two sides of the same coin.

This was also how the Founding Fathers had envisaged America. Individual and
national freedom were inextricably linked. The text of the Declaration of

Independence made this clear:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are
endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life,
Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are
instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.
That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the
Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying

its foundation on such principles and organising its powers in such form, as to them
shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”

Freedom is viewed in these famous (though not often actually read) as a collective as
much as an individual matter. The American Revolution could be viewed in part as a
nationalist rebellion against British rule; although such vocabulary was not used at

the time, the freedom of the 13 colonies as states is viewed in these words as
inseparable from the individual liberty of its inhabitants: Americans. Lincoln agreed;
travelling to Washington in 1860 to be inaugurated as President, he stopped off to
make a speech in Pennsylvania, outside Independence Hall where Jefferson and the
Founding Father had written and agreed the above words back in 1776. Lincoln said,
“I have never had a feeling politically that did not spring from the sentiments
embodied in the Declaration of Independence.” This was the inspiration of Lincoln’s
liberalism.