It is self-evident that no number of men, by conspiring, and calling themselves a government, can acquire any rights whatever over other men, or other men's property, which they had not before, as individuals.
Spooner argues that no group can claim rights over others that they did not possess as individuals.
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The presumption clearly is that all were eligible.
In that case the trial is really a trial by the government, and not by the jury.
Proud from victory, and with their swords in their hands, would they surrender their liberties to a private man?
The people considered their jurisprudence as a part of their inheritance.