This is plainly the sum of the doctrine, because the jury are the peers (equals) of the accused, and are therefore supposed to know the law as well as he does, and as well as it is known by the people at large.
He asserts that juries, as peers of the accused, are expected to understand the law just as well as the accused.
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And nobody is bound to take the least notice of them, unless it be to trample them under foot, as usurpations.
What else than ignorance of the law is it that excuses persons under the years of discretion, and men of imbecile minds?
And whenever any number of men, calling themselves a government, do anything to another man, or to his property, which they had no right to do as individuals they thereby declare themselves trespassers, robbers, or murderers, according to…
Since Magna Carta, we have evidence showing quite conclusively that all freemen, above the age of twenty-one years, were eligible as jurors.