On the record
It is only prohibited from doing anything (that is, from taking a party's goods, rights, or person) unless a jury have first adjudged it to be done.
Said by
Lysander Spooner
Source
gutenberg.orgLysander Spooner: “It is only prohibited from doing anything (that is, from taking a party's goods, rights, or person) unless a jury have…”
Editor's note · Context
This quote explains the conditions under which the government can act against an individual's rights.
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More from Lysander Spooner
They do not tell us that all liberty and order would be destroyed, that society itself would go to pieces, and man go back to barbarism, if it were not for the care, and supervision, and protection, they lavish upon us.
When they have once taken our money, they have the decency to get out of our sight as soon as possible; they do not persist in following us, and robbing us, again and again, so long as we produce anything that they can take from us.
They do not tell us of the almshouses, hospitals, schools, churches, etc., which, out of the purest charity and benevolence, they maintain for our benefit, out of the money they take from us.
They do not attempt to deceive us, or mislead us, or reconcile us to their doings, by any such pretences, impostures, or insults as these.