PERSPECTIVErn- ^^’^’^”^rnThe Ruined Tenementrnby Thomas Flemingrn^^ | _ j ‘ very child should be taught to respect the sanctity of hisrnJ_J neighbor’s house, garden, fields, and all that is his.”rnWhen James Fenimore Cooper insisted upon the inviolabilityrnof property, his conviction was as much the fruit of personal experiencernas it was the expression of his old-fashioned reverencernfor law and order. Upon returning to his home in New Yorkrnstate. Cooper found that his property had been subjected torndepredations from picnicking Yankees who had interpretedrndemocracy as their right to help themselves to another man’srngoods. The ensuing legal battle inspired his Satanstoe novels,rnwhich constitute a history of eady America from the point ofrnview of an estate, but his reverence for the inviolable householdrncrops up in other parts of his work, particulariy in the first of hisrnnovels devoted to the fortunes of Natty Bumppo.rnWhen Cooper introduces Bumppo to his readers, the Deerslayerrnis already an old man living in semiretirement and grumblingrnabout the encroachment of settlers whose “wasty ways”rnare destroying the population of edible wildlife. Accused ofrntaking a deer out of season, Bumppo refuses to allow a meddlesomernpeace-officer to enter his cabin, and when all else fails,rnthreatens him with his gun. Before the agents of the law canrnreturn in force to search his place, Bumppo burns down hisrnown house, and when they come to arrest him in the midst ofrnthe smoking cinders, the old hunter gives them a sermon:rnYou’ve driven God’s creaters from the wilderness, wherernhis providence had put them for his own pleasure, andrnyou’ve brought in the troubles and divilties of the law,rnwhere no man was ever ever known to disturb another.rnYou have driven me, that have lived forty long years ofrnmy appointed time in this very spot, from my home andrnthe shelter of my head, lest you should put your wickedrnfire and wasty ways in my cabin.rnAt his trial. Natty pleads “not guilty with a clean consciencern. . . for there’s no guilt in doing what’s right; and I’d rather diedrnon the spot, than had him put foot in the hut at that moment.”rnThe inviolability of the household is of ancient lineage.rnWhen Aristotle put forward his theory of political evolutionrnfrom household to village to polis, he was outlining the facts ofrnthe case as they were known not just to the Greeks but to all ancientrnpeoples that remembered their own history. House andrnland were passed down within the family from generation torngeneration without benefit of testament, and “it would also berntaken for granted,” as Douglas MacDowell says, “that ownershiprnimplied the right to do what one liked with one’s own, sornthat on one’s own land one could build or demolish a house,rncut down trees, and so on, without asking anyone’s permission.”rnThere were some limits, of course, even in ancient Athens,rnon the liberty of the freehold. To cut down a sacred olive treernwas sacrilege, and a man guilty of serious crimes would presumablyrnbe arrested in his own home, but in most societies arnman might feel secure from harassment once he entered thernwalls of his fortress. In most ancient cities of which we havernknowledge, an intruder—a thief or an adulterer—was beatenrnor killed as if he were an enemy attacking a stronghold.rn”A man’s home is his castle” is a proverb that meant somethingrnin the age when castles enabled a freeman to bid defiancernto the world. By the end of the Middle Ages, the concept ofrnthe castle was extended to every house. Coke puts it plainly;rn”The house of every one is to him, his castle and fortress, as wellrnfor his defence against injury and violence as for his repose.”rnFelons were, of course, denied this sanctuary. As Blackstonernobserves: “No outward doors of a man’s house can in general bernbroken open to execute any civil process; though in criminalrncases the public safety supersedes the private.” But the officersrnof the crown could not force their wav in on some trivial pretext.rnA man might accumulate huge debts, but so long as herndid not leave his house, his person was safe. How many 19thcenturyrnEnglish novels include a bailiff-wracked debtor whorncannot leave his own home?rnThe governors of this world have never been slow to find pretextsrnfor the invasion of liberty. Despite the Common Law restrictionsrnon the power of the king’s agents to enter a homernwithout the owner’s permission, in England the habit of generalrnwarrants gradually developed, and by the early 18th century,rnthe abuse was deeply ingrained in the English constitution.rnThe numerous and various excise statutes, for example onrn12/CHRONICLESrnrnrn