ihood.

The Feudal System was transplanted to England, but it never took deep
root there. When in 1215 A. D. (only a century and a half after the
Great William had made his effort to feudalize England) King John signed
the Magna Carta, Feudalism proper gave way to landlordism--the basis of
English economic life from that time to this.

The system of English landlordism (which showed itself at its worst in
the absentee landlordism of Ireland) differed from Feudalism in this
essential respect,--Feudalism was based upon the idea of the divine
right of kings. English landlordism was based on the idea of divine
right of property. English landlordism is the immediate ancestor of the
property concept that is universally accepted in the business world of
to-day.

The evils of Feudalism and of landlordism were well known to the
American colonists who were under the impression that they arose not
from the fact of ownership, but from the concentration of ownership. The
resources of the new world seemed limitless, and the possibility that
landlordism might show its ugly head on this side of the Atlantic was
too remote for serious consideration.

With the independence of the United States assured after the War of
1812; with the growth of industry, and the coming of tens of thousands
of new settlers, the future of democracy seemed bright. Daniel Webster
characterized the outlook in 1821 by saying, "A country of such vast
extent, with such varieties of soil and climate, with so much public
spirit and private enterprise, with a population increasing so much
beyond former examples, ... so free in its institutions, so mild in its
laws, so secure in the title it confers on every man to his own
acquisitions,--needs nothing but time and peace to carry it forward to
almost any point of advancement."[43]

"So free in its institutions, so mild in its laws, so secure in the
title it confers on every man to his own acquisitions,"--the words were
prophetic. At the moment when they were uttered the forces were busy
that were destined to realize Webster's dream, on an imperial scale, at
the expense of the freedom which he prized. Men were free to get what
they could, and once having secured it, they were safeguarded in its
possession. Property ownership was a virtue universally commended.
Constitutions were drawn and laws were framed to guarantee to property
owners the rights to their property, even in cases where this property
consisted of t