Lysander Spooner

The people are no more arrayed against themselves, when a jury puts its veto upon a statute, which the other tribunals have sanctioned, than they are when the same veto is exercised by the representatives, the senate, the executive, or the…

And the right is practically established only when and because the government, no longer exists to call it in question.

Practically speaking, no government knows any limits to its power, except the endurance of the people.

It was simply, that they would neither convict the innocent, nor acquit the guilty.

But there is no reason why a judge should have the power of punishing, for contempt, any more than for any other offence.

Proud from victory, and with their swords in their hands, would they surrender their liberties to a private man?

They were even allowed to grant pardon to criminals, and to correct by their clemency the rigors of justice.

Yet the codes of the most celebrated kings are very small, and were little more than compilations of immemorial customs.

In that case the trial is really a trial by the government, and not by the jury.

That the legislation of the king was of no authority over a jury, is further proved by the oath taken by the kings at their coronation.

If the authority be vested in the government, the governmnt is absolute, and the people have no liberties except such as the government sees fit to indulge them with.