On the record
This absurd, contemptible, and detestable trick has had a long lease of life, and has been used as a cover for some of the greatest of crimes.
Said by
Lysander Spooner
Source
gutenberg.orgLysander Spooner: “This absurd, contemptible, and detestable trick has had a long lease of life, and has been used as a cover for some of…”
Editor's note · Context
Spooner condemns the long-standing legal trick that justifies state crimes against individuals.
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More from Lysander Spooner
They do not carry their heads high, above all other men, and demand our reverence and admiration, as statesmen, patriots, and benefactors.
They do not tell us that all liberty and order would be destroyed, that society itself would go to pieces, and man go back to barbarism, if it were not for the care, and supervision, and protection, they lavish upon us.
They acknowledge it to be our unquestioned right and duty to kill them, if we can; that they expect nothing else, than that we will kill them, if we can; and that we are only fools and cowards, if we do not kill them, by any and every…
On the contrary, they acknowledge themselves robbers, murderers, and villains, pure and simple.