Both these opinions are distinct declarations of the power of congress to alter men's contracts, after they are made, by simply retaining the name, while altering the thing, that is agreed to be paid.
Spooner critiques the power of Congress to alter contracts, emphasizing the implications for individual rights.
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More from Lysander Spooner
When two men meet one upon the highway, or in the wilderness, have they a right to dispose of his life, liberty, or property at their pleasure, simply because they are the more numerous party?
In nearly or quite all the States of the United States the juries are illegal, for one or the other of the same reasons that make the juries in England illegal.
They are every day committing errors, which would be crimes, but for their ignorance of the law.
It would be a solecism and absurdity in government to allow such consequences as these.