he bodies of their fellow men.

The movement toward the protection of property rights has been
progressive. Webster as a representative of the dominant interests of
the country a hundred years ago rejoiced that every man had a secure
title to "his own acquisitions," at a time when the property of the
country was generally owned by those who had expended some personal
effort in acquiring it. It was a long step from these personal
acquisitions to the tens of billions of wealth in the hands of
twentieth century American corporations. Daniel Webster helped to bridge
the gap. He was responsible, at least in part, for the Dartmouth College
Decision (1816) in which the Supreme Court ruled that a charter, granted
by a state, is a contract that cannot be modified at will by the state.
This decision made the corporation, once created and chartered, a free
agent. Then came the Fourteenth Amendment with its provision that "no
state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges
or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state
deprive any person of life, liberty or property, without due process of
law." The amendment was intended to benefit negroes. It has been used to
place property ownership first among the American beatitudes.

Corporations are "persons" in the eyes of the law. When the state of
California tried to tax the property of the Southern Pacific Railroad at
a rate different from that which it imposed on persons, the Supreme
Court declared the law unconstitutional. This decision, coupled with
that in the Dartmouth College Case secured for a corporation "the same
immunities as any other person; and since the charter creating a
corporation is a contract, whose obligation cannot be impaired by the
one-sided act of a legislature, its constitutional position, as property
holder, is much stronger than anywhere in Europe." These decisions "have
had the effect of placing the modern industrial corporation in an almost
impregnable constitutional position."[44]

Surrounded by constitutional guarantees, armed with legal privileges and
prerogatives and employing the language of liberty, the private property
interests in the United States have gone forward from victory to
victory, extending their power as they increased and concentrated their
possessions.

3. _Safeguarding Property Rights_

The efforts of Daniel Webster and his contemporaries to protect
"acquisitions" have been seconded, wit