ORAL ARGUMENT OF JAMES C. CARTER, ESQ. 175 



First. The institutiou of property springs from aucl rests upon two 

 prime necessities of the human race: 



1. The establishment of peace and order, which is necessary to the 

 existence of any form of society. 



2. The preservation and increase of the useful products of the earth, 

 in order to furnish an adequate supply for the constantly increasing- 

 demands of civilized society. 



Second. These reasons, upon which the institution of property is 

 founded, require that every useful thing, the supply of which is limited, 

 and which is capable of ownership, should be assigned to some legal 

 and determinate owner. 



Third. The extent of the dominion which, by the law of nature, is 

 conferred upon particular nations over the things of the earth, is lim- 

 ited in two ways: 



1. They are not made the absolute owners. Their title is coupled 

 with a trust for the benefit of mankind. The huu)an race is entitled to 

 participate in the enjoyment. 



2. As a corollary or part of the last foregoing proposition, the things 

 themselves are not given; but only the increase or usufruct thereof. 



I think 1 will devote the few remaining minutes before the hour of 

 adjournment arrives to the perusal of some authorities bearing upon 

 these conclusions which are not in my written argument, but which I 

 have had printed, and a copy of which I will hereafter deliver to my 

 friends on the other side. 



The President. Are those the citations mentioned in our first sit- 

 ting, which were left out by the printer'? 



Mr. Carter. No, Mr. President, they are not those, but they are the 

 best substitute that I have been able to make for them. Quite a num- 

 ber of citations have been sent to me from New York; but they do not 

 include that special list, although some of them may belong to it. 



The President. You will never be able to make up that list again? 



Mr. Carter. No; I cannot reproduce that, but it is the best substi- 

 tute I can furnish. It is composed, let me say, in part of quite a num- 

 ber of authorities which I had thought less significant, and which I had 

 rejected in making up that list. I have been compelled to use them in 

 the i)reparation of this. I will read fiom Schouler, an American writer 

 on the law of personal property, and from his introductory chapter, 

 part I : 



Prior to all positive iustitutious exists the truth that to mankind belong the things 

 of this earth as a gift from above. The right to acquire, and to exercise dominion 

 over these thiugs " to subdue" the earth, as it is said — is univ^ersally felt to be a 

 natural right; while the corresponding desire of acquisition is one of the strongest 

 in the human heart; — that which prompts the unlettered and undisciplined savage to 

 plunder and kill for the sake of greedy spoils, but among a well ordered and refined 

 people may be found the mainspriug of civilization. Nor is the gift of external things 

 to the human race absolute aud without limitation, for it is conceded to be somethiug 

 designed for beneficial use and not for wanton injury; to be enjoyed and not to be 

 abused. The inferior animals may minister to our wants; else they should not be 

 killed and maimed by us for mere pastime, or when the duty of self-pi'otection can 

 afford no reasonable excuse. The soil should be cultivated and improved as far as 

 possible — not ravished, laid waste, and left desolate, save Avhere some terrible lesson 

 of good to mankind may furnish a sufficient means of justification. Nature teaches 

 the lesson doubly enforced by revelation, that the right of the human race to own 

 and exercise dominion over the things of this earth in successive generations carries 

 with it a corresponding moral obligation to use, enjoy, and transmit in due coui'se 

 for the benefit of the whole human race, not for ourselves only or for those who pre- 

 ceded us, but for all who are yet to come besides, that the grand purpose of the 

 Creator and Giver may be fully accomplished. 



