All these things prove that the government does not exist at all for the protection of men's rights; but that it absolutely denies to the people any rights, or any liberty, whatever, except such as it shall see fit to permit them to have for the time being.
Spooner contends that the government exists not to protect rights but to deny them, except when convenient.
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It was a principle of the Common Law, as it is of the law of nature, and of common sense, that no man can be taxed without his personal consent.
They were even allowed to grant pardon to criminals, and to correct by their clemency the rigors of justice.
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.