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?
He questions whether two men have the right to impose their will on a single individual simply due to their numbers.
Share
More from Lysander Spooner
They cannot claim or expect that the whole people shall practise the folly of taking on trust their pretended superior knowledge, and of committing blindly into their hands all their own interests, liberties, and rights, to be disposed of…
What else than ignorance of the law is it that excuses persons under the years of discretion, and men of imbecile minds?
In that case the trial is really a trial by the government, and not by the jury.
Juries would refuse to enforce a tax against a man who had never agreed to pay it.