Lysander Spooner: “How shall it be preserved from degeneration into a mere government for…”

On the record

How shall it be preserved from degeneration into a mere government for the benefit of a part only of those who established, and who support it?

Said by

Lysander Spooner

Source

Spooner warns against the potential for government to serve only a select few rather than the entire populace.

More from Lysander Spooner

The presumption clearly is that all were eligible.

There is no more absurdity in giving a jury a veto upon the laws, than there is in giving a veto to each of these other tribunals.

Since Magna Carta, we have evidence showing quite conclusively that all freemen, above the age of twenty-one years, were eligible as jurors.

The will, or the pretended will, of the majority, is the last lurking place of tyranny at the present day.

Lysander Spooner: “How shall it be preserved from degeneration into a mere government for the benefit of a part only of those who…”