Hume- The harmony of liberty and necessity

Hume says that it is universally accepted that there are such things as necessary connections between causes and effects, even if it is only via the experience of the constant conjunction of events that furnishes us with this understanding. Many are concerned, though, that this causal necessity gives rise to a determinism which inhibits our freedom of will. If every event is necessitated by a prior event, then how can our actions be free? If it is the case that there are necessary connections between events (which we call causes and effects), then we know that our actions can be traced back on a causal chain of events that well predates our own existence. Understanding, and even arguing for this, Hume says that we are nonetheless free. How? Hume is a compatibilist of sorts, which means that he thinks that determinism is compatible with free will (and moral responsibility for that matter). Hume says that it boils down to this: "By liberty, then, we can only mean a power of acting or not acting, according to the determinations of the will; that is, if we choose to remain at rest, we may; if we chose to move, we also may." Since nothing is prohibiting us from acting according to our own determinations, we can be said to be free.