It is plain, therefore, that if the people have invested the government with power to make laws that absolutely bind the people, and to punish the people for transgressing those laws, the people have surrendered their liberties unreservedly into the hands of the government.
Spooner critiques the relationship between government power and individual liberties, emphasizing the dangers of absolute authority.
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All other laws, it is optional with each man to obey, or not, as he may choose.
And whenever any number of men, calling themselves a government, do anything to another man, or to his property, which they had no right to do as individuals they thereby declare themselves trespassers, robbers, or murderers, according to…
What else than ignorance of the law is it that excuses persons under the years of discretion, and men of imbecile minds?
Any restriction upon the exercise of this right is a restriction upon his rightful power of providing for, and accomplishing, his own well-being.