The Feudal System was transplanted to England, but it never took deep root there. When in 1215 A. D. (only a century and a half after the Great William had made his effort to feudalize England) King John signed the Magna Carta, Feudalism proper gave way to landlordism—the basis of English economic life from that time to this.
The system of English landlordism (which showed itself at its worst in the absentee landlordism of Ireland) differed from Feudalism in this essential respect,—Feudalism was based upon the idea of the divine right of kings. English landlordism was based on the idea of divine right of property. English landlordism is the immediate ancestor of the property concept that is universally accepted in the business world of to-day.
The evils of Feudalism and of landlordism were well known to the American colonists who were under the impression that they arose not from the fact of ownership, but from the concentration of ownership. The resources of the new world seemed limitless, and the possibility that landlordism might show its ugly head on this side of the Atlantic was too remote for serious consideration.
With the independence of the United States assured after the War of 1812; with the growth of industry, and the coming of tens of thousands of new settlers, the future of democracy seemed bright. Daniel Webster characterized the outlook in 1821 by saying, "A country of such vast extent, with such varieties of soil and climate, with so much public spirit and private enterprise, with a population increasing so much beyond former examples, ... so free in its institutions, so mild in its laws, so secure in the title it confers on every man to his own acquisitions,—needs nothing but time and peace to carry it forward to almost any point of advancement."[43]
"So free in its institutions, so mild in its laws, so secure in the title it confers on every man to his own acquisitions,"—the words were prophetic. At the moment when they were uttered the forces were busy that were destined to realize Webster's dream, on an imperial scale, at the expense of the freedom which he prized. Men were free to get what they could, and once having secured it, they were safeguarded in its possession. Property ownership was a virtue universally commended. Constitutions were drawn and laws were framed to guarantee to property owners the rights to their property, even in cases where this property consisted of the 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.