… is from page xi of the 2008 third edition of James W. Ely’s important book The Guardian of Every Other Right: A Constitutional History of Property Rights:
Defense of economic rights figured prominently during the American Revolution and at the Constitutional Convention of 1787. The founding generation stressed the significance of property ownership as a safeguard for political liberty against arbitrary government as well as the economic utility of private property.


Defense of economic rights figured prominently during the American Revolution and at the Constitutional Convention of 1787. The founding generation stressed the significance of property ownership as a safeguard for political liberty against arbitrary government as well as the economic utility of private property.
