It professedly rested all its authority on a certain paper called a constitution; a paper, I repeat, that nobody had ever signed, that few persons had ever read, that the great body of the people had never seen.
Spooner critiques the constitution as a document that lacks genuine authority and widespread understanding.
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They neither ask, nor expect, any mercy, if they should ever fall into the hands of honest men.
They do not tell us that they have established infallible supreme courts, to whom they refer all questions as to the legality of their acts, and that they do nothing that is not sanctioned by these courts.
On the contrary, they acknowledge themselves robbers, murderers, and villains, pure and simple.
In short, they acknowledge themselves hostes humani generis: enemies of the human race.