James Madison: "Where an excess of power prevails, property of no sort is duly respected. No man is safe in his opinions, his person, his faculties, or his possessions", and:

"Government is instituted to protect property of every sort. . . This being the end of government, that alone is a just government, which impartially secures to every man, whatever is his own."

"Government is instituted no less for protection of the property than of the persons of individuals."

John Adams: "[t]he moment that 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.

Daniel Webster: "No other rights are safe where property is not safe."

An eighteenth century judicial opinion best reflects this concept, wherein the Court noted that "the right of acquiring and possessing property, and having it protected, is one of the natural, inherent and inalienable rights of men.... The preservation of property, then, is a primary object of the social compact." Vanhorne's Lessee v. Dorrance, 2 U.S. 310 (1795).

As we know, early American common law descended from English common law. What did the English think of private property?

Magna Carta: No Freeman shall be taken, or imprisoned, or be disseised [deprived wrongfully of real property] of his Freehold, or Liberties, or free Customs, or be outlawed, or exiled, or any otherwise destroyed; nor will we pass upon him, nor condemn him, but by lawful Judgment of his Peers, or by the Law of the Land. 1297

John Locke: "The great chief end therefore, of Mens uniting into Commonwealths, and putting themselves under Government, is the Preservation of their Property." He also said, "Whenever the legislators endeavor to take away and destroy the property of the people, or to reduce them to slavery under arbitrary power, they put themselves into a state of war with the people, who are thereupon absolved from any further obedience..." --2nd Treatise of Government, 1690 the principal absolute rights which appertain to every Englishman,"

William Blackstone: The principal absolute rights which appertain to every Englishman [are] personal security, personal liberty, and private property.