It cannot be said that men put all their rights into the hands of the government, in order to have them protected; because there can be no such thing as a man's being protected in his rights, any longer than he is allowed to retain them in his own possession.
Spooner asserts that true protection of rights requires individuals to retain possession of those rights.
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One answer is, that this power, which juries have of judging of the law, is not a power of absolute decision in all cases.
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.
They were even allowed to grant pardon to criminals, and to correct by their clemency the rigors of justice.
Juries would refuse to enforce a tax against a man who had never agreed to pay it.