Capitalism and the Constitution

The kind of economic order contemplated by the framers of the Constitution is a considerably more subtle and complex question than one might suppose. To be sure, the framers clearly regarded the protection of such rights as a primary purpose of government. The English philosopher John Locke, whose views were familiar to virtually every American of the founding generation, had taught that the ownership of property was a God-given natural right, antecedent to civil society; and the revolutionary state constitutions and bills of rights had given ringing approval to that dictum. James Madison, in the Constitutional Convention, cited "the security of property "the primary objects of civil society," and other delegates echoed that sentiment.