Lysander Spooner: “In this war, each faction--already steeped in crime--plunged into new, if not greater, crimes.”

When two men meet one upon the highway, or in the wilderness, have they a right to dispose of his life, liberty, or property at their pleasure, simply because they are the more numerous party?

One answer is, that this power, which juries have of judging of the law, is not a power of absolute decision in all cases.

And the right is practically established only when and because the government, no longer exists to call it in question.

They were even allowed to grant pardon to criminals, and to correct by their clemency the rigors of justice.