Let us not be afraid of unduly reducing the province of government. The social principle is always strong enough to prevent this, and the tendency of events is always in the contrary direction. It is too common, the wish to cure all social ills, and advance all social projects, by the power of government. It is too common the wish to place the industry, enterprize and morality of the people, under the care of the state: though all history proves that they sicken and decay under the influence of large governmental powers, and that, in Christian lands, they revive and flourish under the spirit of individualism, which is natural to man, and which can be properly developed only where the pragmatism of the state is excluded. The state is no proper leader in any such matters. It is delegated not to devise plans of acquiring wealth and securing happiness; but to protect individuals in the proper pursuit of their own lawful plans—not to guide enterprize into new channels and new undertakings; but to protect those already entered upon, and to keep open and improve their avenues. Man advances only by pursuing his own ideal of morality and enterprize; and this he pursues with an energy proportioned to the brightness of the rewards which his own eye discovers in it. When government interferes in such matters, it truly represents only those who suggest the plan; and they only will appreciate the ideal that it is intended to embody or realize; and they only, and not the people generally, can be relied on to give it effect. And so here, a small band of individual sockholders are likely to have the control of the millions of municipal subscriptions now proposed to be made in this and other cases, and the very proposition to make them, has prevented an incalculable amount of individual subscription, and set aside that much of the individual energy, forecast and watchfulness so necessary to the success of such enterprises. The laborer will not tax his own energies when Hercules undertakes his works, and he will be equally backward if Hercules attempt to control him. The vast majority of the people desire to be allowed to mind their own business in their own way, and it is this majority that ought to be regarded. And when the government undertakes to meddle with them, at the call of noisy speculators seeking public favors, no amount of official majorities can purge the deed of its tyrannical character.
—Sharpless v. Mayor of Philadelphia, 2 Am. L. Reg. 27, 41-42 (Pa. 1853) (Lowrie, J., dissenting) (Yes, there were dissents in Sharpless. I talked about that case some years ago.)
