Lysander Spooner: “From the sale of that justice which every citizen has a right to demand, it was an easy transition to withhold or deny…”

It was a principle of the Common Law, as it is of the law of nature, and of common sense, that no man can be taxed without his personal consent.

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

Juries would refuse to enforce a tax against a man who had never agreed to pay it.

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