Wynehamer v People.pdf - The University of Texas at Austin

ALBANY, MAKCH, 1856. 467Wyneliamer against The People.for an entirely different object, and a purpose in itselflegitimate, and which in no respect affects the title, possession,personal use or enjoyment of the owner. Such aconstruction would prohibit all regulations by the legislature,and all restrictions upon the internal trade and commerceof the state; it would place the right of traffic aboveevery other right, and render it independent of the powerof the government. " Deprived" is there used in its ordinaryand popular sense, and relates simply to divesting of,forfeiting, alienating, taking away property. It applies toproperty in the same sense that it does to life and liberty,and no other. Prohibiting the sale of property, exceptunder and in pursuance of a license, and for certain specifiedpurposes, is in no sense depriving a person of it. The prohibitiontends to hinder and prevent divesture, but in norespect to enforce it. When a person is deprived of hisproperty " by due process of law," the thing itself, as weall know, with the legal title is taken away. All his rightsin respect to it are entirely extinguished, and transferredwith the corpus to another. The very language andsubject, therefore, of the limitation upon the power, or thecondition upon which its exercise is permitted, explain anddefine exactly the nature and character of the deprivationintended. The legal rights incident to every species ofproperty, in the absence of any specific regulation, arenumerous; and can it with any reason be said that themere abridgment, or, indeed, the entire extinction of someof these rights, deprives the owner of his property, in thesense of the constitution, especially where the article orthing itself and the legal title remain as before ?The act does, indeed, by other provisions, directly providefor depriving the owner of his property by forfeiture anddestruction; but that is where it is kept for an unlawfulpurpose, and after a trial and judgment. That provisionhas no bearing upon the question under consideration.When the property is taken from the owner and destroyed,