No person's property can be taken, no person's life can be taken, no person's liberty can be taken under our Constitution without due process of law. We do not need to discuss the meaning of “due process of law”. You will learn more about this later, as you study more fully the details of the Constitution. It is sufficient now to say that no person's life, liberty, or property can be taken away from him without his consent, except by a trial before a legal court, in which the person shall have the right to a fair hearing. He must have notice of the charge or claim made against him. He must have a chance to appear in person. He must have the right to employ attorneys to represent him. He must have the privilege of bringing in witnesses to tell the truth about the charges that may be made. There must be a decision by the court after a speedy public trial. In all the States of this country any one is entitled to such a trial, and he is also, in case of defeat, entitled to appeal and present his case to a different and a higher court. These courts are the courts of the people, selected by the people, and neither government nor individuals have any right to take away anyone's life, liberty, or property unless the people by and through their courts shall so find and do.
Then we find the following constitutional provision: “nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.”[65]
Of course the government at times must have property which may belong to a private person. The public must at times take property belonging to an individual. Property may be taken, even when the owner will not consent to it, when it is taken for public use. One man's property cannot be taken by the government and given to another person. Government buildings must be erected and land must be obtained [pg 107] for such purposes. The public must have railroads, and a railroad can only be built when land is obtained for what is called the right of way. Sometimes a railroad must run through lots or farms belonging to private owners. The higher right of the public to these conveniences, these necessities, requires that when necessary the private individual must give up his right of ownership to these higher public uses. But even for the Nation, or the State, or railway, or for any other public use, not one foot of land may be taken from the poorest man in the country unless he is first fully paid its value therefor. Usually, of course, the owner will sell his property for such purpose at a fair price, but, if he is stubborn and will not do so, or if a fair price cannot be agreed upon then the government of the State or of the Nation, or the agents of the State or of the Nation may take such property by first having its value fixed by a commission, or a jury, composed of the neighbors of the owner. Where the amount fixed by such commission or jury is not satisfactory to the owner of the property, he may appeal to the court and have a trial, usually a jury trial, in which he can bring his witnesses and prove the value of his property, so that he will finally receive its full, fair, just value.
By this constitutional guaranty every person is well guarded in his ownership and possession of property. In countries existing before America not much attention was paid to the rights of property owners. If the king or emperor should demand possession of a certain piece of property the owner had little to say about it. He received his orders and obeyed them, because he was afraid of the power of the government. The government could pay or not as it pleased. But this period of wrong and injustice was ended, so far as the people of America were concerned, when the Constitution became the final power in this land.
There are a few people in this country who seek to have private ownership of property abolished. No law taking away the right to own property can ever come into force in this country until the people by their votes change the Constitution. The Constitution stands guard over the farms, the homes, the money, and all forms of personal property. It guards the cottage of the widow with the same jealous care that it does the ten-story building of the bank. No person and no power can interfere with the right to accumulate property and to hold it, provided only it is honestly obtained.
ELEMENTARY QUESTIONS
1. What are the three things that every man, woman, and child cherishes?
2. What does the Constitution say about these three things?
3. What was the Bastile? The Tower of London?
4. Show how injustice was worked by confining people without due process of law.