To art and insinuation they turned, as their only resource, and flattered a people whom they could not awe; but address, and the abilities to persuade, were a weak compensation for the absence of real power.
Spooner critiques the limitations of persuasion in the absence of real power.
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The answer is, that they are as reliable for that purpose as are the majority; they are as much presumed to have associated, and are as likely to have associated, for that object, as are the majority; and they have as much interest in such…
What else than ignorance of the law is it that excuses persons under the years of discretion, and men of imbecile minds?
Yet the codes of the most celebrated kings are very small, and were little more than compilations of immemorial customs.
They are every day committing errors, which would be crimes, but for their ignorance of the law.