This denial of men's _natural_ right to take possession of and cultivate wilderness land is not altered at all by the fact that the government consents to sell as much land as it thinks it expedient or profitable to sell; nor by the fact that, in certain cases, it gives outright certain lands to certain persons. Notwithstanding these sales and gifts, the fact remains that the government claims the original ownership of the lands; and thus denies the _natural_ right of individuals to take possession of and cultivate them. In denying this _natural_ right of individuals, it denies their _natural_ right to live on the earth; and asserts that they have no other right to life than the government, by its own mere will, pleasure, and discretion, may see fit to grant them. In thus denying man's _natural_ right to life, it of course denies every other _natural_ right of human beings; and asserts that they have no _natural_ right to anything; but that, for all other things, as well as for life itself, they must depend wholly upon the good pleasure and discretion of the government. SECTION XIII. In still another way, the government denies men's _natural_ right to life. And that is by denying their _natural_ right to make any of those contracts with each other, for buying and selling, borrowing and lending, giving and receiving, property, which are necessary, if men are to exist in any considerable numbers on the earth. Even the few savages, who contrive to live, mostly or wholly, by hunting, fishing, and gathering wild fruits, without cultivating the earth, and almost wholly without the use of tools or machinery, are yet, _at times_, necessitated to buy and sell, borrow and lend, give and receive, articles of food, if no others, as their only means of preserving their lives. But, in civilized life, where but a small portion of men's labor is necessary for the production of food, and they employ themselves in an almost infinite variety of industries, and in the production of an almost infinite variety of commodities, it would be impossible for them to live, if they were wholly prohibited from buying and selling, borrowing and lending, giving and receiving, the products of each other's labor. Yet the government of the United States--either acting separately, or jointly with the State governments--has heretofore constantly denied, and still constantly denies, the _natural_ right of the people, _as individuals_, to make their own contracts, for such buying and selling, borrowing and lending, and giving and receiving, such commodities as they produce for each other's uses.