When, therefore, a government takes a man's property, for its own support, or for its own uses, without his consent, it practically denies his right of property altogether; for it practically asserts that its right of dominion is superior to his.
Spooner argues that government appropriation of property without consent denies individual property rights.
Share
More from Lysander Spooner
Yet the codes of the most celebrated kings are very small, and were little more than compilations of immemorial customs.
The people are no more arrayed against themselves, when a jury puts its veto upon a statute, which the other tribunals have sanctioned, than they are when the same veto is exercised by the representatives, the senate, the executive, or the…
There is no more absurdity in giving a jury a veto upon the laws, than there is in giving a veto to each of these other tribunals.
It is also sheer impudence, on their part, to assume that their commands are at all necessary to teach other men what is, and what is not, justice.