ORAL ARGUMENT OF JAMES C. CARTER, ESQ. 173 



itself were given, so that the individual had a right to destroy it, then 

 it would not be proper for human society to take notice of any attempts 

 to destroy property; but there is, as I have said, a vast deal of legis- 

 lation on the statute books of municipal states based upon this law of 

 nature of which I speak, based upon this policy which ought always to 

 animate the jurisprudence of any nation, namely, to prevent the destruc- 

 tion of property. The preservation of property, and the increase of the 

 amount of property in a community is, or ought to be — is, indeed — the 

 policy of all states. All their legislation, or a great part of their legis- 

 lation, is enacted for the purpose of securing that end; and indeed the 

 extent to which the institution of property is permitted to be carried is 

 only an illustration of the importance which society attaches, not only 

 to the ijreservation of property, but to the increase of the amount of it. 

 Society places no limit to the extent to which property may be held. 

 Attention is often called to the enormous fortunes which individuals 

 acquire, especially in recent times; aud the question is sometimes asked, 

 why should individuals be permitted to en gross property b^^ the hundreds 

 of millions? When we look into the real nature of it, we see that the 

 permission of carrying the institution of property to that extent, of 

 allowing individual possessions to that extent, is only a part of this 

 generally wise and beneficent system which encourages the preservation 

 of property. Those who are most successful in the acquisition of prop- 

 erty, and who acquire it to such an enormous extent are the very men 

 who are able to control it, to invest it, and to manage it in the way most 

 useful to society. It is because they have those qualities that they are 

 able to engross it to so large an extent. They really own, in any just 

 sense of the word, only what they consume. The rest is all held for the 

 benefit of the i)ublic. They are the custodians of it. They invest it; 

 they see that it is put into this employment, that emi)loyment, another 

 employment. Labor is employed by it, and employed in the best manner; 

 and it is thus made the most productive. These men who acquire these 

 hundreds of millions are really groaning under a servitude to the rest 

 of society; for that is practically their condition. And society really 

 endures it because it is best that it should be so. 



I have called the attention of the Tribunal to the various forms and 

 methods in wliich society manifests and enforces its policy of preserving 

 property and increasing the amount of proi^erty and making the natural 

 bounties of the earth more productive. I have pointed out several modes 

 in which that policy is illustrated. I could point out many more. I have 

 this further suggestion to make upon that point: that it is one of the 

 duties particularly incumbent upon civilized society to take, these methods 

 and means of preserving property and of preserving the sources from which 

 property proceeds, because civilization makes a very dangerous attack 

 upon the fruits of the earth. The moment the numbers of mankind are 

 increased, the attack which is made upon the fruits of the earth which 

 can support and maintain mankind, are proportionately increased; and 

 there is danger, therefore, of destroying them. There is danger of 

 destroying the races of animals, and therefore with the increased attack 

 which civilization brings there comes a corresponding duty resting upon 

 civilization to prevent those attacks from becoming effective. I might, 

 and shall by and by, bring this argument to bear upon the case of these 

 seals. When these seals were discovered a hundred years ago, they were 

 a blessing tributary only to barbaric man. A few hundreds were all that 

 were taken. And those few hundreds — it may have been a few thou 

 sands — sufficed to supply all the wants of the inhabitants along the shores 

 where they were found. That was the only attack which the barbaric 



