“Property is surely a right of mankind as real as liberty. The moment the idea is admitted into society that property is not as sacred as the laws of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence.”
– John Adams in his Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States, published in The Works of John Adams. Edited by Charles Francis Adams. 10 vols. Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1850–56. See also: Butterfield; Cappon; Warren-Adams Letters
