1. “So great moreover is the regard of the law for private property, that it will not authorize the least violation of it; no, not even for the general good of the whole community. If a new road, for instance, were to be made through the grounds of a private person, it might perhaps be extensively beneficial to the public; but the law permits no man, or set of men to do this without consent of the owner of the land.”

Blackstone, W., I Commentaries on the Laws of England 139 (Lewis, W. ed. 1898)Google Scholar [hereinafter cited as Commentaries].

2. Burns, , Blackstone's Theory of the ‘Absolute’ Rights of Property, 54 U. Cin. L. Rev. 67 (1985)Google Scholar. An interesting deconstruction of Blackstone is found in Kennedy, , The Structure of Blackstone's Commentaries, 28 Buffalo L. Rev. 205 (1979)Google Scholar.

3. Miller, P., The Life of the Mind in America, From the Revolution to the Civil War 224 (1965)Google Scholar.

4. Wood, G., The Creation of the American Republic, 1776-1787, 544–45 (1969)Google Scholar.

5. Bruchey, , The Impact of Concern for the Security of Property Rights on the Legal System of the Early American Republic, 1980 Wis. L. Rev. 1136Google Scholar; Horwitz, M., The Transformation of American Law, 1780-1860, 31–62 (1977)Google Scholar.

6. Root, , Reports (Conn. 1798)Google Scholar, Intro., xxxix.

7. See Nolan, , Sir William Blackstone and the New American Republic: A Study of Intellectual Impact, 51 N.Y.U. L. Rev. 731 (1976)Google Scholar; Boorstin, D., The Mysterious Science of the Law 3–4 (1941)Google Scholar. In preparing his edition of the Commentaries William Hammond's examination of American reports from 1787 to 1890 revealed 6,477 references to Blackstone, who had been quoted more than any other writer by the various courts in the United States. The 1915 Jones edition added 2,412 more.

8. Locke, J., An Essay Concerning Civil Government (1690) (Laslett, P. ed. 1960)Google Scholar. The rule that private property cannot be taken except by consent was taken by Locke from Fortescue, J., De Laudibus Legum Angliae, ch. 39 (Chrimes, B. trans. 1942)Google Scholar.

9. On Bentham's criticism of Blackstone's peculiar use of natural law to stifle criticism of the common law, see Bentham, J., A Comment on the Commentaries—A Criticism of William Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England (Everett, E. ed. 1928)Google Scholar.

10. Pufendorf, S., De Jure Naturae et Gentium libri octo (1672; French translation by J. Barbeyrac 2 vols. 1720-1734, by 1710 four editions in English)Google Scholar. And De Officio Hominis et civis circa legem naturalem (1682; by 1759 nine Latin editions and one French translation published in England).

11. Grotius, H., De Jure Belli et Pacis (1625; by 1750 six editions in English)Google Scholar.

12. Vattel, E., Le droit des gens, ou principes de la loi naturelle appliques a la conduite et aux affaires des souverains (2 vol. 1758; English translation by Fenwick, C. 1916)Google Scholar. On Vattel, see Weinberg, A., Manifest Destiny 77–79 (1935)Google Scholar.

13. In fact, the need to develop a solid theory of property rights was a central concern of most nineteenth century American jurists, including Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. See The Common Law 206–46 (1881)Google Scholar, and see Horwitz, supra note 5. Coincidentally, a similar focus on property rights was a leading theme in the writing of German legal scholars in the same period. See, e.g., Savigny, C. von, Das Recht des Besitzes (1803)Google Scholar, and Jehring, R. von, Der Besitzwille (1889)Google Scholar.

14. Scheiber, , The Road to Munn: Eminent Domain and the Concept of Public Purpose in the State Courts, in Law in American History 329 (Fleming, D. and Bailyn, B. eds. 1971)Google Scholar.

15. See Noonan, J., Persons and Masks of the Law (1976)Google Scholar.

16. See, e.g. Meek, R., Social Science and the Ignoble Savage (1976)Google Scholar; Pearce, R., The Savages of America (1953)Google Scholar; Smith, H., Virgin Land (1950)Google Scholar. Many of the Western Indian tribes inhabited and cultivated the land in the same location for thousands of years. Rawls, J., The Indians of California: The Changing Image 6–13 (1986)Google Scholar.

17. See generally Weinberg, supra note 12.

18. Canny, , The Ideology of English Colonization: From Ireland to America [hereinafter cited as Ideology], 28 William and Mary Q. 575–98 (1971)Google Scholar; Canny, , The Elizabethan Conquest of Ireland (1976)Google Scholar, and Canny, , The Westward Enterprise (1979)Google Scholar.

19. David Beers Quinn has also established a connection between English colonization ideology in Ireland and the New world. Raleigh and the British Empire (1947); The Elizabethans and the Irish (1966); Sir. Thomas Smith (1513-1577) and the Beginnings of English Colonial Theory, 89 Amer. Phil. Soc. Proceedings 543 (1945)Google Scholar. See also Verlinden, C., The Beginnings of Modern Colonization (1970)Google Scholar. For later connections between Ireland and the New World, see Dickson, R.J., Ulster Emigration to Colonial America, 1718-1775 (1966)Google Scholar.

20. Acosta, J. de, Historia Natural y Moral de las Indias (O'Groman, E. ed. 1961)Google Scholar; Elliott, J.H., The Old World and the New, 1492-1650 (1970)Google Scholar; Rowe, , Ethnography and Ethnology in the Sixteenth Century, 30 Kroeber Anthropological Society Papers 1–19 (1964)Google Scholar; Hale, , Sixteenth-Century Explanations of War and Violence, 51 Past and Present 3–26 (1971)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

21. Spenser, , A View to the Present State of Ireland (1596; Renwick, N.L. ed. 1970)Google Scholar brings together the principal themes the English gentry used to justify the colonization of Ireland.

22. For West Countrymen in America, particularly in Virginia, see Rabb, T., Enterprise and Empire: Merchant and Gentry Investments in the Expansions of England (1967)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

23. Spenser, E., A View of the Present State of Ireland 9 (1596; Renwick, W. ed. 1970)Google Scholar.

24. Ideology, supra note 18, at 580. Queen to William Fitzwilliam, July 17, 1573, Carte MSS 56, No. 260, Bodleian Library, Oxford University.

25. Bagwell, R., II Ireland Under the Tudors, with a Succinct Account of the Early History 288–89 (1890)Google Scholar.

26. Ideology, supra note 18, at 582.

27. Churchyard, T., A Generall Rehearsall of Warres and Joyned to the Same Some Tragedies and Epitaphes (1579)Google Scholar.

28. Garrett, C., The Marian Exiles: A Study in the Origins of Elizabethan Puritanism (1966)Google Scholar.

29. See Watt, J., The Church and the Two Nations in Medieval Ireland 183–97 (1970)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

30. Ideology, supra note 18, at 584. Tremayne, E., Notes on Ireland, 06, 1571Google Scholar, S.P. 63/32, no. 66, P.R.O.

31. Spenser, supra note 21, at 84.

32. Boemus, J., The Fardel of facions, conteining the aunciente maners, customes, and Lawes of the peoples enhabiting the two partes of the earth, called Afrike and Asie (Waterman, W. trans. 1955)Google Scholar.

33. Sidney to Leicester, Mar 1, 1566, S.P. 63/16, no. 35, P.R.O.

34. Thevet, A., The new found worlde, or Antarticke (Hackett, T. trans. 1568)Google Scholar.

35. Davies, J., A Discovery of the True Causes Why Ireland Was Never Entirely Subdued, nor brought under obedience of the Crowne of England until the beginning of the happy reign of king james in X the Carisbrooke library (Morley, H. ed. 1890)Google Scholar.

36. J. Boemus, supra note 32, at 106.

37. Id. at 49, 50, 54, 56.

38. Rich, R., Allarme to England, foreshadowing what perils are procured, where the people live without regard of Martiall lawe 2 (1578)Google Scholar; and A Short Survey of Ireland, truely discovering who it is that both so armed the hearts of that people, with disobedience to their Princes 2 (1609)Google Scholar.

39. Ideology, supra note 18, at 588-89. Smith to Fitzwilliam, Nov. 8, 1572, Carte MSS. 57, no. 236.

40. Spenser, supra note 21, at 10-11.

41. Elliott, supra note 20, at 39-51.

42. Anglerius, P., The Decades of the Newe World or West Indies (Eden, R. trans. 1555)Google Scholar; Elliott, supra note 20, at 91.

43. Angelerius, supra n.42, at preface.

44. Davies to Salisbury, Nov. 8, 16, 10,. in SirDavies, John, Historical Tracts (1787)Google Scholar.

45. Ideology, supra note 18, at 596.

46. Nash, , The Image of the Indian in the Southern Colonial Mind, 29 William and Mary Q. 197–230 (1972)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Pearce, R., The Savages of America: A Study of the Indian and the Idea of Civilization 4–16 (rev. ed. 1965)Google Scholar.

47. Genovese, E., Roll Jordan Roll: The World the Slaves Made (1972, 1974)Google Scholar; Rebelliousness and Docility in the Negro Slave: A Critique of the Elkins Thesis, 13 Civil War History 392 (1967)Google Scholar. More broadly, see Morgan, E., American Slavery, American Freedom: The Ordeal of Colonial Virginia (1976)Google Scholar; Davis, D., The Problem of Slavery in Western Culture (1966)Google Scholar. On the legal position of black slaves in America, see Cover, R., Justice Accused: Anti-Slavery and the Judicial Process (1975)Google Scholar; and Noonan, supra note 15, at 29-64. For the Anglo-American image of the California Indians, see Rawls, supra note 16, at 186-201.

48. Vattel, supra note 12, III Le Droit des Gens 32-38.

49. T. Hobbes, De Cive (1642); Leviathan (1651).

50. Locke, supra note 8.

51. Hume, D., Treatise on Human Nature (1739-1740; Selby-Bigge, L.A. ed. 1888)Google Scholar.

52. Grotius, supra note 11.

53. Pufendorf, supra note 10.

54. Grotius, II De Jure Belli de Pacis, supra note 52, at 2.21-5.

55. Hume, supra note 51, at 31.

56. Hume, D., Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals 188 (1751; Selby-Bigge, L.A. ed. 1902)Google Scholar.

57. Id. at 197-98.

58. Montesquieu, C., De l'esprit des lois (1748)Google Scholar; The Spirit of the Laws (Nugent, trans., 6th ed. 1972)Google Scholar.

59. Goguet, A., De l'origine des lois, des arts, et des sciences, et de leurs progres chez les anciens peuples (1758 English translation 1761)Google Scholar. On Goguet, see Stein, P., Legal Evolution: The Story of an Idea 21 (1980)Google Scholar.

60. Goguet, supra note 59, at 16-17.

61. Dalrymple, J., An Essay Towards a General Theory of Feudal Property in Great Britain 76–77 (1757; 4th ed. London, 1759)Google Scholar.

62. Home, H. (Lord Kames), I Historical Law Tracts v (2 vols. Edinburgh 1760)Google Scholar.

63. Smith, A., The Theory of Moral Sentiments 342 (1759)Google Scholar.

64. Smith, A., Lectures on Jurisprudence 14 (1762–1763)Google Scholar.

65. IV Commentaries 4, supra note 1.

66. Turgot, A., On Universal History (1751–1752)Google Scholar.

67. de Caritat, M. Nicolas (Marquis de Condorcet) Esquisse d'un tableau historique des progres de l'esprit humaine (1789)Google Scholar; English translations 1796 and 1802).

68. Lafitau, J.F., Moeurs des sauvages ameriquains, comparees aux moeurs des premiers temps (2 vol. 1724)Google Scholar.

69. In 1830 Congress fed the land hunger of its constituents by authorizing the President to exchange land west of the Mississippi river for that “ceded” by various Native Americans, described on a contemporary map as “emigrant Indians.” Act of May 28, 1830, 4 Stat. 411. President Jackson promptly obliged the Congress by administering a vigorous program of extinguishing Indian title to land. In his second annual address to Congress on December 6, 1838, Jackson announced with pleasure that the “benevolent policy of the Government… in relation to the removal of the Indians is approaching to a happy consummation.” 2 Richardson, J., A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents, 1789-1897 519 (1896)Google Scholar. This policy, Jackson promised, would “place a dense and civilized population in large tracts of country now occupied by a few savage hunters.…” Id. at 520. He asked rhetorically: “What good man would prefer a country covered with forests and ranged by a few thousand savages to our extensive Republic, studded with cities, towns and prosperous farms, embellished with all the improvements which art can devise or industry execute, occupied by more than 12,000,000 happy people, and filled with all the blessings of liberty, civilization, and religion?” Id. at 521.

The Indian removal policy was sustained in Cherokee Nation v. Georgia, 30 U.S. (5 Pet.) 1 (1831), but when the Supreme Court ruled a year later in Worcester v. Georgia, 31 U.S. (6 Pet.) 515 (1832) that the Indians retained certain rights in their own lands, President Jackson is said to have retorted: “John Marshall has made his decision, now let him enforce it.” The President used federal troops to facilitate the prompt removal of the Cherokees to the designated territory. The brutality of this forced march is captured in its Indian description as “the trail of tears.” For a thoughtful discussion of the Supreme Court decisions, see Burke, , The Cherokee Cases: A Study in Law, Politics and Morality, 21 Stan. L. Rev. 500 (1969)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For a more comprehensive treatment of Cherokee culture, see McLoughlin, W., Cherokee Renascense in the New Republic, 1794-1833 (1987)Google Scholar, Cherokee Indian Nation: A Troubled Hist. (King, D. ed. 1979)Google Scholar and Brown, J., All Frontiers: The Story of the Cherokee Indians from Earliest Times to the Date of Their Removal to the West, 1838 (1938)Google Scholar.

70. See, Weinberg, Manifest Destiny, supra note 12; F., and Merk, L., Manifest Destiny and Mission in American History (1963)Google Scholar; and Alstyne, Van, American Nationalism and the Mythology, 65 Queen's Quart. 423 (1958)Google Scholar.

71. Early nineteenth century German anti-semitism, a counterpart to the rising Volk movement, actually depicted Jews as soulless people lacking a natural habitat. Like Gypsies, Jews were viewed as lacking “rootedness,” and thereby were thought to have no stake in the well-being of the country. This is clear in the influential work of Wilhelm Heinrich Riehl, Land und Leute, and the popular peasant novels such as Löns, H., Der Wehrwolf (1910)Google Scholar. See Louse, , The Peasant in Wilhelm Heinrich Riehl's Sociological and Novelistic Writings xv Germanic Rev. (1940)Google Scholar. This type of thinking had a decided influence upon the development of Nazi ideology. See Laqueur, W., Weimar: A Cultural History, 1918-1933 (1974)Google Scholar.

72. “This book is the ornament of the Common Law, and the most perfect and absolute work that ever was written in any human science.” Coke, I Institutes, proem.

73. Scott v. Sandford, 60 U.S. (19 How. 393, 15 L. Ed. 691 (1856). On this case see Fehrenbacher, D., The Dred Scott Case: Its Significance in American Law and Politics (1978)Google Scholar.

74. 21 U.S. 621 U.S. (8 Wheat.) 543 (1823).

75. 392 U.S. 409 (1968).

76. 334 U.S. 1 (1948).

77. 272 U.S. 365 (1926).

78. 138 U.S. App. D.C. 369, 448 F.2d 1071, cert, den., 400 U.S. 925 (1970).

79. 17 Cal. 3d 719, 131 Cal. Rptr. 761, 552 P.2d 721 (1976).