On the record
No government can have any right to grant them; because no government can have a right to take from one man any thing that is his, and give it to another.
Said by
Lysander Spooner
Source
gutenberg.orgLysander Spooner: “No government can have any right to grant them; because no government can have a right to take from one man any thing…”
Editor's note · Context
Spooner argues against the moral legitimacy of government taking property from one person to give to another.
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More from Lysander Spooner
It would also be making them consent to what they regard as the destruction of their own rights.
In this manner all unjust laws are established, and made operative against the rights of the people.
In that case the trial is really a trial by the government, and not by the jury.
They are every day committing errors, which would be crimes, but for their ignorance of the law.