Lysander Spooner

A secret ballot makes a secret government; and a secret government is nothing else than a government by conspiracy.

And having no right to say that you have any principals, you are bound, on every just principle of law or reason, to confess that you are mere usurpers, making laws, and enforcing them, upon your own authority alone.

That title is nothing more nor less than votes given in secret (by secret ballot), by not more than one-fifth of the whole population.

And all who are associated with you in the government--whether they be called senators, representatives, judges, executive officers, or what not--all hold their places, directly or indirectly, only by the same worthless title.

You hold your place only by a title, which, on no just principle of law or reason, is worth a straw.

You and your lawmakers have no such evidence of your right of dominion over the people of this country, as would be required to prove your right to any material property, that you might have purchased.

If any man's money can be taken by a so-called government, without his own personal consent, all his other rights are taken with it; for with his money the government can, and will, hire soldiers to stand over him, compel him to submit to…

If taxation without consent is robbery, the United States government has never had, has not now, and is never likely to have, a single honest dollar in its treasury.

Who, then, are robbed, if taxed without their consent?

But if that principle were a true one in behalf of three millions of men, it is an equally true one in behalf of three men, or of one man.

It was once said, in this country, that taxation without consent was robbery.

For example, you have no such evidence of your right to take any man's property for the support of your government, as would be required of you, if you were to claim pay for a single day's honest labor.