52 ARGUMENT OP THE UNITED STATES. 



ous and indisputable basis of necessity. u Necessity begat property." 1 

 Neither history, nor tradition, informs us of any people who have in- 

 habited the earth among whom the right of property to at least this 

 extent was not recognized and enforced. And an interesting confirma- 

 tion is found in the circumstance that the rude originals of the admin- 

 istration of justice are everywhere found in contrivances designed for 

 punishment of theft. 



The circumstance that in the early advances of society from savage 

 to industrial conditions we find that in many things, especially land and 

 the products of land, community property is found to obtain in place of 

 individual property, does not impair in any degree the force of the 

 views just expressed. The institution of property is in full operation, 

 whether society itself — the artificial person — asserts ownership, or per- 

 mits its members to exercise the privilege. Wherever the supreme 

 necessities of society, peace and order, are found to be best subserved 

 by ownership in the one form rather than in the other, the form most 

 suitable will be adopted. Community property was found sufficient for 

 the early stages of society, and it is the anticipation, or the dream, of 

 many ingenious minds that the expedient will again, in the further ad- 

 vance of society, be found necessary. 



But the desire of human nature for exclusive ownership is not lim- 

 ited to the weapons and product of the chase, as in savage society, or 

 to the reward of a proportional share, as in early industrial communi- 

 ties. Man wishes for more, for the sake of the comfort, power, consid- 

 eration and influence which abundant possessions bring. He wishes to 

 better his condition, and this is possible only by increase of posses- 

 sions. And the improvement of society, it has been found, can be 

 effected, or best effected, only through the improvement of its individ- 

 ual members. This desire of individual man to better his condition is 

 imperious, and must be gratified; and inasmuch as the gratification 

 tends to general happiness and improvement, a moral basis is furnished 

 for an extension of the institution of individual property. As the first 

 necessity of the social state, peace and order, require that ownership 

 should be enforced to at least the limited extent which savage con- 

 ditions require, so the second necessity of society, its progress and 

 advancement — that is to say, civilization — demands that individual 

 effort should be encouraged by offering as its reward the exclusive own- 

 ership of everything which it can produce. In these two principal neees- 



1 Blackstone's Com., Book 2, p. 8. 



