If this administration be in accordance with the arbitrary will of the legislator that is, if his will, as it appears in his statutes, be the highest rule of decision known to the judicial tribunals, the government is a despotism, and the people are slaves.
Spooner argues that a government becomes despotic when its laws are enforced without regard for natural justice.
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They neither ask, nor expect, any mercy, if they should ever fall into the hands of honest men.
On the contrary, they acknowledge themselves robbers, murderers, and villains, pure and simple.
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.
In short, they acknowledge themselves hostes humani generis: enemies of the human race.