Robert Coram and a Tilt
at William Blackstone

Emily E. F. Skeel

[Reprinted from Land and Freedom, March-April 1941]

That so early an American as Robert Coram should perceive clearly the injustices of our inherited land laws, at a time when land was still a glut in our young country, is noteworthy. In his little book, A Plan for the General Establishment of Schools in the United States, first published in 1791, his clear reasoning on the befogged reasoning of the renowned jurist, Dr. Blackstone, constitutes an important contribution to Georgeist literature. Coram writes as follows:

"The only question remaining," says the Doctor, "is how this property became actually vested, or what is it that gave a man an exclusive right to retain in a permanent manner that specific land which before belonged generally to everybody, but particularly to nobody. And as we before observed, that occupancy gave a right to the temporary use of the soil, so it is agreed upon all hands, that occupancy gave also the original right to the permanent property in substance of the earth itself, which excludes every one else but the owner from the use of it. ...However, both sides agree in this, that occupancy is the thing by which the title was in fact originally gained, every man seizing to his own continued use such spots of ground as he found most agreeable to his own convenience, provided he found them unoccupied by any man."

"But the act of occupancy is a degree of bodily labor; that is, the occupancy extends 'as far as the labor; or in other words, a man has a right to as much land as he cultivates, and no more; which is Mr. Locke's doctrine. This distinction is therefore absolutely necessary to determine the quantum of lands any individual could possess under the laws of nature. For shall we say, a man can possess only the ground in immediate contact with his feet; or if he climbs to the top of a mountain, and exclaims, 'Behold, I possess as far as I can see' shall there be any magic in the words, or in the expression, which shall convey the right of all that land, in fee simple, to him and his heirs forever? No; as labor constitutes the right, so it sensibly defines the boundaries of possession. How then shall we detest the empty sophist, who in order to establish his system of monopoly, would fain persuade us that the Almighty did not know what he was about when he made man. That he made him an animal of prey, and intended him for a polished citizen; that he gave us bounties in common to all, and yet suffered a necessity to exist by which they could be enjoyed only by a few. Had Dr. Blackstone been disposed to give his readers a true account of the origin of landed property in Europe he might have said, exclusive property in lands originated with government ; but most of the governments that we have any knowledge of, were founded by conquest; property therefore in its origin, seems to have been arbitrary.

"But after all," continues the Doctor, "there are some few things, which must still unavoidably remain in common: such (among others) are the elements of light, air and water."

Thank you for nothing, Doctor. It is very generous indeed, to allow us the common right to the elements of light, air and water, or even the blood which flows in our veins, Blackstone's Commentaries have been much celebrated; and this very chapter, so replete with malignant sophistry and absurdity, has been inserted in all the magazines, museums, registers, and other periodical publications in England, and cried up as the most ingenious performance ever published. ...We will however never believe that men originally entered into a compact by which they excluded themselves from all right to the bounties of Providence, and if they did, the contract could not be binding on their posterity; for although a man may give away his own right, he cannot give away the right of another. …The wants of man, instead of having been lessened, have been multiplied, and that in proportion to his boasted civilization; and the fear of poverty alone is more than sufficient to counterbalance all the fears to which he was subject, in the rudest stage of natural liberty. From this source arise almost all the disorders in the body politic. The fear of poverty has given a double spring to avarice, the deadliest passion in the human breast; it has erected a golden image, to which all mankind, with reverence, bend the knee, regardless of their idolatry. Merit is but an abortive useless gift to the possessor, unless accompanied with wealth; he might choose which tree whereon to hang himself, did not his virtuous mind tell him to "dig, beg, rot and perish, well content, so he but wrap himself in honest rags at his last gasp, and die in peace." It is a melancholy reflection that in almost all ages and countries, men have been cruelly butchered, for crimes occasioned by the laws ; and which they never would have committed, had they not been deprived of their natural means of subsistence. But the governors of mankind seem never to have made any allowance for poverty; but like the stupid physician who prescribed bleeding for every disorder, they seem ever to have been distinguished by an insatiable thirst for human blood. The altars of a merciful God have been washed to their foundation from the veins of miserable men; and the double edged sword of Justice, with all its formality and parade, seems calculated to cut off equally the innocent and guilty. Between religion and law, man has had literally no rest for the sole of his foot. In the dark ages of Gothic barbarity, ignorance was some excuse for the framing of absurd systems; but in the age in which Dr. Blackstone lived, he should have known better, he should have known that the unequal distribution of property was the parent of almost all the disorders of government ; nay, he did know it, for he had read Beccaria, who treating upon the crime of robbery, says,

"But this crime, alas ! is commonly the effect of misery and despair, the crime of that unhappy part of mankind, to whom the right of exclusive property (a terrible and perhaps unnecessary right) has left but a bare subsistence."