Lysander Spooner

To levy upon a few kinds the cost of protecting all, is a naked robbery of the holders of those few kinds, for the benefit of the holders of all other kinds.

If it really exists for that purpose, it is plainly bound to make each kind of property pay its proper proportion, and only its proper proportion, of the cost of protecting all kinds.

And it is a plain violation of one's right, for a government to make any distinction between them.

A man's natural right of property, in a commodity he has bought in a foreign country, is intrinsically as sacred and inviolable as it is in a commodity produced at home.

All taxes, levied upon a man's property for the support of government, without his consent, are mere robbery; a violation of his natural right of property.

It is punishing a man as a criminal, for simply trying to save his property from robbers.

In short, it is nothing but downright robbery.

Whether it be considered as a price paid for a privilege, or a penalty for having exercised a natural right, it is a violation both of his natural right of property, and of his natural right to make a contract in that country.

And any obstruction, price, or penalty, interposed by the government, to the exercise of that right, is a practical violation of the right itself.

A man has the same natural right to traffic with another, who lives on the opposite side of the globe, as he has to traffic with his next-door neighbor.

The so-called taxes or duties, which the government levies upon imports, are a practical violation both of men's natural right of property, and of their natural right to make their own contracts.

And being their tool for this gigantic robbery, it is equally their tool for all the lesser robberies, to which it is supposed that the people at large can be made to submit.