Lysander Spooner: “He might pardon, or he might acquit on grounds of law, not withstanding the sentence; but he could not punish beyond the…”

Proud from victory, and with their swords in their hands, would they surrender their liberties to a private man?

From the sale of that justice which every citizen has a right to demand, it was an easy transition to withhold or deny it.

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.

There is no more absurdity in giving a jury a veto upon the laws, than there is in giving a veto to each of these other tribunals.