It professedly rested all its authority on a certain paper called a constitution; a paper, I repeat, that nobody had ever signed, that few persons had ever read, that the great body of the people had never seen.
Spooner critiques the constitution as a document that lacks genuine authority and widespread understanding.
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And yet these reasons, which are really no reasons at all, are the only ones, so far as I know, that have ever been offered for this absurd and brutal doctrine.
Any restriction upon the exercise of this right is a restriction upon his rightful power of providing for, and accomplishing, his own well-being.
And the right is practically established only when and because the government, no longer exists to call it in question.
What else than ignorance of the law is it that excuses persons under the years of discretion, and men of imbecile minds?