… is from page 26 of the 2008 third edition of James W. Ely’s important book The Guardian of Every Other Right: A Constitutional History of Property Rights (footnote deleted):
Throughout the revolutionary era, Americans emphasized the centrality of the right to property in constitutional thought. “The right of property,” Arthur Lee of Virginia declared, “is the guardian of every other right, and to deprive the people of this, is in fact to deprive them of their liberty.” Hence, the protection of property ownership was an integral part of the American effort to fashion constitutional limits on governmental authority.
DBx: Pictured here is Arthur Lee of Virginia.