Lysander Spooner: “Who ever heard that succeeding legislatures were, on the whole, more…”

On the record

Who ever heard that succeeding legislatures were, on the whole, more honest than those that preceded them?

Said by

Lysander Spooner

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Spooner questions the assumption that future legislatures will be more honest than past ones, challenging the notion of progress in governance.

More from Lysander Spooner

Why should they not have such an administration of justice as they desire, and can understand?

Practically speaking, no government knows any limits to its power, except the endurance of the people.

They were even allowed to grant pardon to criminals, and to correct by their clemency the rigors of justice.

The will, or the pretended will, of the majority, is the last lurking place of tyranny at the present day.

Lysander Spooner: “Who ever heard that succeeding legislatures were, on the whole, more honest than those that preceded them?”