ct an _unlawful_ object, it is a conspiracy; which is both a
criminal offence under the laws of the land everywhere, and also gives
the party injured a right to damages, that is, what we call a civil
suit; and furthermore no _act_ is necessary. There is no doubt about
that part of the definition. Or where they combine to get a lawful
end by unlawful means, as, for instance, when laborers combine to get
their employer to raise their wages by the process of knocking on the
head all men that come to take their places, that is gaining a lawful
end by unlawful means, by intimidation--and is a conspiracy. But now
the whole doctrine in discussion comes in: If you have a combination
to bring about by _lawful_ means the _injury_ of a third person in his
lawful rights--not amounting to crime--is that an unlawful conspiracy?
Yes--for it is a "malicious enterprise." So is our law, and the common
law of England, yes. And you can easily see the common-sense of it.
The danger to any individual is so tremendous if he is to be conspired
against by thousands, hundreds of thousands, not by one neighbor, but
by all the people of the town, that it early got established as a
principle of the common law, and of these early English statutes,
that, although one man alone might do an act which, otherwise lawful,
was to the injury of a third person, and be neither restrained nor
punished for it, he could not _combine with others_ for that purpose
by the very same acts. For instance, I don't like the butcher with
whom I have been doing business; I take away my trade. That, of
course, I have a perfect right to do. But going a step farther, I
tell my friends I don't like Smith and don't want to trade with
him--probably I have a right to do that; but when I get every citizen
of that town together at a meeting and say: "Let us all agree to
ruin Smith, we will none of us trade with him"--Smith is bound to
be ruined. The common law early recognized this importance of the
principle of combination, and therefore it was part of the English
common law and is still, barring one recent statute, that a
combination to injure a person, although by an act which if done
by one individual would be lawful, is nevertheless an unlawful
combination; that is, a _conspiracy_ under the law; for all
"conspiracies" are unlawful, under the law; the meaning of the word
_conspiracy_ in the law is, not an innocent combination, but a guilty
one, and anything which is a _conspirac