Wealth is matter...transformed...to a condition...more serviceable to a human need. Without wealth man cannot exist. The production of it is a necessity to him...in any given human society there is a certain kind and a certain amount of wealth without which human life cannot be lived, as, for instance...food, clothing, warmth, and habitation. Therefore, to control the production of wealth is to control human life itself. To refuse man the opportunity for the production of wealth is to refuse him the opportunity for life.
BELLOC, HILAIRE, The Servile State, Section One, Definitions[T]he Servile Condition...is...the withdrawal from a man of his free choice to labour or not to labour, here or there, for such and such an object; and the compelling of him by positive law to labour for the advantage of others who do not fall under the same compulsion.
BELLOC, HILAIRE, The Servile State, Section One, DefinitionsFor the preservation, exercise, and enjoyment of these rights the individual citizens, as a necessity, must be left free to adopt such a calling, profession, or trade as may seem to him most conducive to that end. ... The right to choose one's calling is an essential part of that liberty which is the object of government to protect; and a calling, when chosen, is a man's property and right. Liberty and property are not protected where these rights are arbitrarily assailed.
BRADLEY, U.S. SUPREME COURT JUSTICE JOSEPH P., The Slaughter-House Cases (1873)