At the dawn of the American Republic, corporations were not given legal status as humans.

They had none of the rights of the individual granted in the Constitution.

They didn’t qualify for due process.

Corporations were chartered and allowed to operate by the states. If a corporation, in the eyes of a state legislature, violated a basic trust by harming the people, committing offenses against the citizenry, the legislature could summarily cancel its charter and literally exile it from the state.

The corporation had no day in court.

Again, corporations were not individual humans. They did not have the rights and freedoms of individuals. Corporations were not granted the rights of citizens in the Constitution.

At the birth of the American Republic, therefore, there was a double limitation on power. Central government and corporations were both strapped and shackled.

Of course, just as the federal government has been allowed to expand like an unchecked fungus, so has corporate power.