On March 29th, 1792, James Madison published an essay in the National Gazette entitled 'Property'. Here is an excerpt:
In its larger and juster meaning, (property) embraces everything to which a man may attach a value and have a right; and which leaves to every one else the like advantage.
In the former sense, a man's hand, or merchandise, or money is called his property.
In the latter sense, a man has property in his opinions and the free communication of them.
He has a property of peculiar value in his religious opinions, and the profession and practice dictated by them.
He has property very dear to him in the safety and liberty of his person.
He has an equal property in the free use of his faculties and free choice of the objects on which to employ them.
In a word, as a man is said to have a right to his property, he may be equally said to have a property in his rights.
In a nutshell, property rights are natural freedoms to ACT on your own behalf, for your own good and to pursue your own happiness. They are not obligations placed on you by someone else.
Tomorrow we'll take a look at how this right to act solely for your own benefit is being infringed upon by the very government that is supposed to protect that right.
