The most tyrannical government will, therefore, if it have any sense, leave its victims enough liberty to enable them to provide for their own subsistence, to pay their taxes, and to render such military or other service as the government may have need of.
This quote illustrates Spooner's belief that even tyrannical governments must provide some liberty for practical reasons.
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More from Lysander Spooner
In short, they acknowledge themselves hostes humani generis: enemies of the human race.
They do not tell us that they have established infallible supreme courts, to whom they refer all questions as to the legality of their acts, and that they do nothing that is not sanctioned by these courts.
They neither ask, nor expect, any mercy, if they should ever fall into the hands of honest men.
They do not tell us that we are the freest and happiest people on earth, inasmuch as each of our male adults is allowed one voice in ten millions in the choice of the men, who are to rob, enslave, and murder us.