Private Property Rights

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that the classical liberal tradition has always defined the central purpose of all liberal governments as the protection of private property rights based on the philosophy of John Locke and Alexander de Tocqueville. The author points out that the problematic state of the Union where not all individuals are full citizens led to Abraham Lincoln's new interpretation of private property rights, which stated that human rights must be protected, even at the expense of property, such as slaves, and the government's right to protect human bodies and liberties, rather than merely protect private property, was paramount. The paper relates that, on the other hand, the 1823 case of "Johnson vs. McIntosh", a critical moment in the history of Indian law and American land claims, gave rights of ownership to the European sovereigns who "discovered" the land and converted the indigenous owners, the Indians, into tenants who may not benefit from sale of their land.

From the Paper:

"National policy and wisdom, as opposed to property deeds held sway, according to the court, despite, "however extravagant the pretension of converting the discovery of an inhabited country into conquest may appear; if the principle has been asserted in the first instance, and afterwards sustained; if a country has been acquired and held under it; if the property of the great mass of the community originates in it, it becomes the law of the land, and cannot be questioned." In other words, as America found the land, perhaps in an illegal and colonizing fashion, but it would now dispose of the land, for "the Indian inhabitants are to be considered merely as occupants," even though "restriction may be opposed to natural right, and to the usages of civilized nations, yet, if it be indispensable to that system under which the country has been settled," it must be upheld."

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• Analytical Essay # 26483 : "John Locke and Private Property"

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