It is self-evident that no number of men, by conspiring, and calling themselves a government, can acquire any rights whatever over other men, or other men's property, which they had not before, as individuals.
Spooner argues that no group can claim rights over others that they did not possess as individuals.
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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…
They were even allowed to grant pardon to criminals, and to correct by their clemency the rigors of justice.
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.
The people considered their jurisprudence as a part of their inheritance.