Stephen Johnson Field

“ The common business and callings of life, the ordinary trades and pursuits, which are innocuous in themselves, and have been followed in all communities from time immemorial, must therefore be free in this country to all alike upon the same conditions. The right to pursue them, without let or hinderance, except that which is applied to all persons of the same age, sex, and condition, is a distinguishing privilege of citizens of the United States, and an essential element of that freedom which they claim as their birthright. ”

“ The granting of an exclusive right to engage in such vocations would be repudiated in all communities as an invasion of common right. The state undoubtedly may require many kinds of business to be carried on beyond the thickly settled portions of a city, or even entirely without its limits, especially when attendant odors or noises affect the health or disturb the peace of the neighborhood; but the exercise of this necessary power does not warrant granting to a particular class or to a corporation a monopoly of the business thus removed. ”

“ I cannot believe that what is termed in the declaration of independence a Godgiven and an inalienable right can be thus ruthlessly taken from the citizen, or that there can be any abridgment of that right except by regulations alike affecting all persons of the same age, sex, and condition. ”

“ The principal, if not the sole, purpose of its prohibitions is to prevent any arbitrary invasion by state authority of the rights of person and property, and to secure to every one the right to pursue his happiness unrestrained, except by just, equal, and impartial laws. ”

“ No one would object to the clause which declares that no state shall deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law, nor to the provision which declares that no state shall deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. ”

“ These inherent rights have never been more happily expressed than in the declaration of independence, that new evangel of liberty to the people: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident'-that is, so plain that their truth is recognized upon their mere statement-'that all men are endowed'-not by edicts of emperors, or deerees of parliament, or acts of congress, but 'by their Creator with certain inalienable rights.'-that is, rights which cannot be bartered away, or given away, or taken away, except in punishment of crime-'and tha among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness ”

“ As in our intercourse with our fellow-men certain principles of morality are assumed to exist, without which society would be impossible, so certain inherent rights lie at the foundation of all action, and upon a recognition of them alone can free institutions be maintained. ”

“ The patrimony of the poor man lies in the strength and dexterity of his own hands, and to hinder his employing this strength and dexterity in what manner he thinks proper, without injury to his neighbor, is a plain violation of this most sacred property. ”

“ It is a manifest encroachment upon the just liberty both of the workman and of those who might be disposed to employ him. As it hinders the one from working at what he thinks proper, so it hinders the others from employing whom they think proper.' Smith, Wealth Nat. ”

“ They can now, as then, legislate to promote health, good order, and peace, to develop their resources, enlarge their industries, and advance their properity. It only inhibits discriminating and partial enactments,-favoring some to the impairment of the rights of others. ”

“ Communities, like individuals, resent even fa ors ungraciously bestowed. The appropriate mode of enforcing the amendment is, in my judgment, that which has been applied to other previously existing constitutional prohibitions, such as the one against a state passing a law impairing the obligation of contracts, or a bill of attainder, or an ex post facto law. ”

“ The states could not previously have interfered with these privileges and immunities, or any other privileges and immunities which citizens enjoyed under the coustitution and laws of the United States. ”

“ It created a corporation, and gave to it an exclusive right for 25 years to keep, within an area of 1,145 square miles, a place where alone animals intended for slaughter could be landed and sheltered, and where alone they could be slaughtered and their meat prepared for market. ”