On the record
Sufficiently flattered in leading the armies of their countrymen, the ambition of commanders could as little suggest such designs, as the liberty of the people could submit to them.
Said by
Lysander Spooner
Source
gutenberg.orgLysander Spooner: “Sufficiently flattered in leading the armies of their countrymen, the ambition of commanders could as little suggest…”
Editor's note · Context
Spooner argues that the ambition of military leaders cannot lead to the subjugation of a free people.
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More from Lysander Spooner
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 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.
For all these reasons, they are not only modest and sensible, but really frank, honest, and honorable villains, contrasted with these courts of injustice, and the lawmakers by whom these courts are established.
They neither ask, nor expect, any mercy, if they should ever fall into the hands of honest men.