Reply #61: Jefferson's "thing of wax" nightmare had come to pass.

[Bryn]

Jefferson Was Right
by Mike Byron

Most Americans don't know it but Thomas Jefferson, along with James Madison
worked assiduously to have an 11th Amendment included into our nation's
original Bill of Rights. This proposed Amendment would have prohibited
"monopolies in commerce." The amendment would have made it illegal for
corporations to own other corporations, or to give money to politicians, or
to otherwise try to influence elections. Corporations would be chartered by
the states for the primary purpose of "serving the public good."

Corporations would possess the legal status not of natural persons but
rather of "artificial persons." This means that they would have only those
legal attributes which the state saw fit to grant to them. They would NOT;
and indeed could NOT possess the same bundle of rights which actual flesh
and blood persons enjoy. Under this proposed amendment neither the 14th
Amendment of the US Constitution, nor any provision of that document would
protect the artificial entities known of as corporations.

<snip>

Jefferson worried about the growing influence of corporate power until his
dying day in 1826. Even the more conservative founder John Adams came to
harbor deep misgivings about unchecked corporate power.

<big snip>

Jefferson's "thing of wax" nightmare had come to pass.

http://homepage.mac.com/kaaawa/iblog/C2128262602/E20051...

Too bad it wasn't successfully adopted.