23 



Let us sec to it that God's earth, given to man as his 

 heritage, is not so managed as to make the many mere slaves 

 of tlie lew, so controlled as to be made the ready, efficient 

 means of torture and oppression, instead of what it ought to 

 be, the richest of blessings. 



THE DESCENT OF PROPERTY. 



Jefferson in early life was convinced, and rightfully toOj 

 that the tenure, by which property is held and the laws regu- 

 lating its transfer, are of first importance to the State. He 

 saw that measures should be adopted for the more equal dis- 

 tribution of property, to facilitate its transfer, and to make a 

 liberal distribution of it among the people certain and inevita- 

 ble. Although of noble birth, heir to a large estate, and 

 occupying a high social position, with every inducement to 

 espouse the cause of the rich and privileged, he took sides 

 from the first with the people and devoted himself with all his 

 wonderful powers to the repeal of the laws of entail, upon the 

 ground that the repeal would prevent the accumulation of 

 wealth in select families, and to the abolition of primogeniture, 

 which made one member of a family rich and all the rest poor. 

 The application of our laws in i-elation to the tenure and 

 transmission of property to the present qpndition of affairs, 

 results in larger and more unhealthy accumulation of property, 

 and to the making of the few rich and the many poor, than 

 did the laws in force in Virginia at the time Jefferson con- 

 tended so vigorously and successfully for their reform. And 

 there is now, as then, needed a radical change in these laws. 



The present laws upon this subject greatly obstruct the free 

 distribution of wealth, and do great injustice to the i^eople. 

 The refor.ms inaugurated by Jefferson, although in his time 



