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… is from page 545 of the 1988 collection of Lord Acton’s writings and notes to himself (edited by the late J. Rufus Fears), Essays in Religion, Politics, and Morality [2]; specifically, it’s a note drawn from Acton’s extensive papers at Cambridge University:
Declaration of Independence and Wealth of Nations appeared in the same year. Both were theories of liberty, emancipating from history.
DBx: What Acton here means – as is evident from the spirit of his work – is that both documents sought to liberate humanity, not from history, but from the arbitrary power that cursed humanity for most of history.