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Conflicts between the desire to meet the felt needs of society and the desire to maintain existing property rights have long perplexed modern governments. The methods adopted for the resolution of such conflicts quite naturally reflect the prevailing social and political ideology in each nation. In the United States in the period of the Philadelphia Convention, the prevailing temper, at least among the influential, was one of insistence upon the preservation of the sanctity of private property. This insistence and the widespread public reverence for law and judicial institutions determined that state interference with or modification of private contracts be subject to a constitutional limitation prohibiting impairment of the obligation of a contract. The constitutional framers, themselves extensive property holders and creditors, did not suggest in their debates that this prohibition be extended to contracts of a public character. However, such an extension was made within three decades of the framing of the Constitution through the judicial decision-making process of the Supreme Court of the United States.

John C. Campbell (1867--1919) is widely considered to be a pioneer in the objective study of the complex world of Appalachian mountaineers. Thanks to a grant from the Russell Sage Foundation, Campbell traveled throughout the region with his wife -- noted social reformer and "songcatcher" Olive Dame Campbell -- interviewing and profiling its people. His landmark work, The Southern Highlander and His Homeland, is cited by nearly every scholar writing about the region, yet little has been published about the Campbells and their role in the sociological, educational, and cultural history of Appalachia. Elizabeth McCutchen Williams has prepared the first critical edition of Olive Dame Campbell's comprehensive overview of her husband's life and work -- a project left unfinished at the time of Olive's death. Never before published, this unique volume draws extensively on diary entries and personal letters to illuminate the significance and lasting impact of John C. Campbell's contributions. The result is a dynamic blend of biography and collected correspondence that presents an insightful portrait of the influential educator and reformer