[kiryandil]

As I understand it, at the time of the drafting of the Declaration, Mr. Jefferson originally wrote “…Life, Liberty and PROPERTY…” (meaning that one’s right to freely acquire, use and dispose of his property – to the extent doing so did not violate the same to others – was a Creator endowed right. Because slavery viewed humans as property, the phrase “Pursuit of Happiness” was adopted instead to avoid – at least for the time being — the inevitable debate on that subject.

BenLurkin wrote: believed that the only real wealth was land....

As I posted before - 49 of the 50 states stole the ownership of "your" land within the last 50 or so years with property tax legislation.

In most states, if you don't pay The King's Rent, they'll take "their" property back within 3 or 4 years - even if you have paid for the land in full...

[Sherman Logan]

Are you aware that most if not all of the colonies had property taxation, which increased greatly during the Revolution, and continued under the states?

Amounts and how taxes are levied has changed, but back in the time of the Founding, if you didn’t pay your property taxes it would be taken for taxes just like today.