On the record
Any government, that is its own judge of, and determines authoritatively for the people, what are its own powers over the people, is an absolute government of course.
Said by
Lysander Spooner
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gutenberg.orgLysander Spooner: “Any government, that is its own judge of, and determines authoritatively for the people, what are its own powers over…”
Editor's note · Context
Spooner critiques any government that defines its own powers without accountability to the people.
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More from Lysander Spooner
One answer is, that this power, which juries have of judging of the law, is not a power of absolute decision in all cases.
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.
In nearly or quite all the States of the United States the juries are illegal, for one or the other of the same reasons that make the juries in England illegal.
It would be a solecism and absurdity in government to allow such consequences as these.