On the record
What gang of robbers, quarrelling over the division of their plunder, could exhibit a more shameful picture than you thus acknowledge to be shown by the government of the United States?
Said by
Lysander Spooner
Source
gutenberg.orgLysander Spooner: “What gang of robbers, quarrelling over the division of their plunder, could exhibit a more shameful picture than you…”
Editor's note · Context
Spooner compares the U.S. government to a gang of robbers, highlighting its moral failures.
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More from Lysander Spooner
It was simply, that they would neither convict the innocent, nor acquit the guilty.
Juries would refuse to enforce a tax against a man who had never agreed to pay it.
From the sale of that justice which every citizen has a right to demand, it was an easy transition to withhold or deny it.
Proud from victory, and with their swords in their hands, would they surrender their liberties to a private man?