James Madison Was Right About Property Rights
Adapted from an article by Marsha Familaro Enright and Gen LaGreca, originally published in the Daily Caller.
Constitution
Day on September 17 celebrates the 1787 signing of the document that established
the United States of America. But like the victim of a terrible accident, the
government that was formed that historic day in Philadelphia is hardly
recognizable today, and the heart that propelled it—the principle of individual
rights—is on life support.
Ironically,
what started as a government of radically limited powers now mandates that the
nation’s schools “hold an educational program on the United States
Constitution” on the holiday of its signing.
In fact, the
best “educational program” comes from James Madison, the man who scoured
political thought and history to create the blueprint for our government,
earning him the title Father of the
Constitution. He has a crucial lesson for us on property rights.
Consider the growing
onslaught against property rights, with public officials, presidential
candidates, academicians, and many others calling for a “wealth tax,” “wealth
transfers,” a “guaranteed income,” and many other schemes to “redistribute wealth.”
Ideas abound on how to confiscate the wealth of some people to support the
politicians’ favored voting groups.
Are these
attacks on our possessions accepted because the right to property is a lesser
right, one that isn’t unalienable like others rights, such as freedom of speech,
press, and religion?
In his article Property, Madison emphatically says no. He explains that our right to
property is as untouchable as our freedom of speech, press, religion, and
conscience. In fact, he views the concept of property as fundamental,
pertaining to much more than merely our material possessions.
In the narrow
sense, Madison says, “a man’s land, or merchandize, or money is called his
property.” But in a wider sense, “a man has a property in his opinions and the
free communication of them . . . in his religious beliefs . . . in the safety
and liberty of his person . . . in the free use of his faculties and free
choice of the objects on which to employ them.”
He then
concludes: “[A]s a man is said to have a right to his property, he may be
equally said to have a property in his rights.”
This statement
represents a profound expression of the individual’s sovereignty over his
possessions of every kind: spiritual, intellectual, and material. According to
Madison, a human being is master of his mind and body, his beliefs and
possessions, his person and property. It is all
the province of the individual to create and control.
Madison argues
that there is no parceling of rights.
Our rights to life, liberty, and property are indivisible. The reason for this was explained with unusual clarity
by Ayn Rand two centuries later: “The right to life is the source of all
rights—and the right to property is their only implementation. Without property
rights, no other rights are possible. Since man has to sustain his life by his
own effort, the man who has no right to the product of his effort has no means
to sustain his life.”
Government,
according to Madison, is “instituted to protect property of every sort,” and is
judged solely by this yardstick: “If the United States mean to obtain or
deserve the full praise due to wise and just governments, they will equally
respect the rights of property, and the property in rights.”
But what does
our current government do? Instead of respecting our material property at least
as well as it does our other rights, its redistribution of wealth, strangling
regulations on business, and deeply ingrained entitlement mentality are blatant
assaults on our right to property. As Ronald Reagan
famously remarked: “Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a
few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if
it stops moving, subsidize it.”
It’s as if
Madison looked into the future as he observed: “When an excess of power
prevails, property of no sort is duly respected.” That is precisely our current
situation.
Because our
rights can’t be divided, if we lose one, we could lose them all. That’s why we
have to fight against government intrusion in the free market with the same
moral certitude—and the same fire-in-the-belly—that we’d have if the government
invaded our homes without a warrant, or forbade us to peacefully assemble. We
have to treat the government’s encroachment on the economy as we would an
encroachment on our opinions, beliefs, and conscience.
On Constitution
Day, let’s remember Madison’s lesson on the full meaning of property—and fight
for our right to property as if our lives depended on it, because they do.
(All quotes from James Madison are taken from his essay Property, originally published March
29, 1792 in the National Gazette and currently published online by the
University of Chicago Press.)Gen LaGreca is an award-winning author of liberty-themed novels, including her soon-to-be-published fourth novel, Just the Truth. Marsha Familaro Enright is president of The Reason, Individualism, Freedom Institute sponsoring The Great Connections educational programs.
