Thirty years after drafting the US Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson warned of the dangers posed by the corporation, writing of the need to "crush in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations, which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and bid defiance to the laws of our country." Today, instead, the aristocracy of the corporation has grown to full maturity, wielding power over the state and its laws in the service of corporate aims.