Governments have no right to interfere with the pursuits of individuals, as guaranteed by those general laws, by offering encouragements and granting privileges to any particular class of industry, or any select bodies of men, inasmuch as all classes of industry and all men are equally important to the general welfare, and equally entitled to protection.
William Leggett, from “The Doctrine or Equal Rights,” Democratick Editorials: Essays in Jacksonian Political Economy (1984).