Private Property Rights 



A Lool< at Its l-listory and Future 



Thom J. McEvoy 



School of Natural Resouces, University of Vermont 



Private property rights is a sore subject for many 

 landowners, especially among those who have owned 

 land for a generation or more. In fact, the perception of 

 sovereignty is a function of tenure: the longer land has 

 been owned by a family, the stronger its ties to the land, 

 and the more threatened the family becomes when 

 someone brings up the subject of rights. Yet, the 

 history of private property in the U.S. is fascinating, 

 and our view in this country of an individual's rights is 

 far more liberal than in most other countries (I use the 

 term "liberal" in the context of interpretation, not in 

 the context of "liberal" versus "conservative"). In 

 many European countries, for instance, an individual 

 can own land and can benefit from it, but his ability to 

 make decisions about how the land is used is limited, 

 far more so than here in the U.S. In China (and most 

 other third-world countries around the world), there is 

 no such thing as private real property. An individual 

 can own crops and trees, but the land is publicly 

 owned. Virtually the entire population of the world 

 lives on land it does not own, but in our country, such 

 is not the case. Americans enjoy real property rights 

 that are far more generous when compared to the rest 

 of the world. So, why then is it such a sore subject? 



Thomas Jefferson is largely credited with 

 espousing sovereignty for private property in the U.S. 

 when he said more than 200 years ago: "Nothing is 

 ours, which another may deprive us of" Property- 

 rights advocates argue that Jefferson's words are as 

 true today as then. However, most of us forget that he 

 lived during a time when the colonists were telling the 

 King of England to mind his own business. Then, a 

 lack of sovereignty meant subjugation, and the 

 ownership of property by all men was tangible proof 

 that the American people no longer answered to the 



King. To own land and make it productive, according 

 to Jefferson, is the right of every American. 



The colonists of the mid-1 8"' century, virtually all 

 of whom were second and third generations of the 

 original emigrants, were unwilling to be bridled by the 

 King who offered few services in exchange for taxes. 

 The Revolutionary War was about land, to a great 

 degree: does the King say who goes where, or do local 

 people make those decisions? When the dust settled, 

 the colonists had severed ties with the monarchy, but 

 the legal system under which property rights were 

 defined-an enduring legacy of the King of England- 

 mostly stayed with us. 



For almost 100 years following the War for 

 Independence, virtually every debate in Congress was 

 about land and property rights, but little was changed 

 in terms of the interpretation of rights. During this 

 period, land was about the only valuable asset 

 available to the U.S., and Congress used this asset as its 

 currency. For example, a Vermonter by the name of 

 Justin Morrill convinced Congress in 1862 to create a 

 nationwide system of universities, funded not with 

 cash, but with land. Known even today as the "land- 

 grant universities," virtually all of the state colleges (or 

 at least one in each state) got their first major 

 appropriation in land. 



So prevalent were land grants among Americans 

 that for a period during the first hundred years 

 following the Revolution, land grants were a more 

 common form of currency than gold or paper money. 

 A land grant, written on parchment, frequently folded 

 and dog-eared might change hands to settle a debt 

 many times before landing in the possession of a 

 farmer who filed a claim for title and actually took 

 ownership of th eland. Once claimed, the title to land 



Copyright©! 001 by Moose River Publishing Company. Reprinted with permission from Farming, The Journal of 

 Northeast Agriculture, Volume 4, Number 12 (December), 2001, pp. 45-47. For subscription information, call Moose 

 River Publishing Company at (800) 422-7147 or write to Farming, The Journal of Northeast Agriculture, P.O. Box 449, 

 St. Johnsbury. VT 05819-9929. 



40 



Fruit Notes, Volume 66, 2001 



