"...they [the
elected government officials] are neither our servants, agents,
attorneys, nor representatives ... [for] we do not make ourselves
responsible for their acts. If a man is my servant, agent, or
attorney, I necessarily make myself responsible for all his acts
done within the limits of the power I have intrusted to him. If
I have intrusted him, as my agent, with either absolute power,
or any power at all, over the persons or properties of other men
than myself, I thereby necessarily make myself responsible to
those other persons for any injuries he may do them, so long as
he acts within the limits of the power I have granted him. But
no individual who may be injured in his person or property, by
acts of Congress, can come to the individual electors, and hold
them responsible for these acts of their so-called agents or representatives.
This fact proves that these pretended agents of the people, of
everybody, are really the agents of nobody."
"In truth,
in the case of individuals their actual voting is not to be taken
as proof of consent.... On the contrary, it is to be considered
that, without his consent having even been asked a man finds himself
environed by a government that he cannot resist; a government
that forces him to pay money renders service, and foregoes the
exercise of many of his natural rights, under peril of weighty
punishments. He sees, too, that other men practice this tyranny
over him by the use of the ballot. He sees further, that, if he
will but use the ballot himself, he has some chance of relieving
himself from this tyranny of others, by subjecting them to his
own. In short, he finds himself, without his consent, so situated
that, if he uses the ballot, he may become a master, if he does
not use it, he must become a slave. And he has no other alternative
than these two. In self-defense, he attempts the former. His case
is analogous to that of a man who has been forced into battle,
where he must either kill others, or be killed himself. Because,
to save his own life in battle, a man attempts to take the lives
of his opponents, it is not to be inferred that the battle is
one of his own choosing. Neither in contests with the ballot –
which is a mere substitute for a bullet – because, as his
only chance of self-preservation, a man uses a ballot, is it to
be inferred that the contest is one into which he voluntarily
entered; that he voluntarily set up all his own natural rights,
as a stake against those of others, to be lost or won by the mere
power of numbers.... Doubtless
the most miserable of men, under the most oppressive government
in the world, if allowed the ballot would use it, if they could
see any chance of meliorating their condition. But it would not,
therefore, be a legitimate inference that the government itself,
that crushes them, was one which they had voluntarily set up,
or even consented to."
"It is true
that the theory of our Constitution is, that all taxes are paid
voluntarily; that our government is a mutual insurance company,
voluntarily entered into by the people with each other....
But this
theory of our government is wholly different from the practical
fact. The fact is that the government, like a highwayman, says
to a man: "Your money, or your life." And many, if not most, taxes
are paid under the compulsion of that threat. The government
does not, indeed, waylay a man in a lonely place, spring upon
him from the roadside, and, holding a pistol to his head, proceed
to rifle his pockets. But the robbery is none the less a robbery
on that account; and it is far more dastardly and shameful. The highwayman
takes solely upon himself the responsibility, danger, and crime
of his own act. He does not pretend that he has any rightful claim
to your money, or that he intends to use it for your own benefit.
He does not pretend to be anything but a robber. He has not acquired
impudence enough to profess to be merely a "protector," and that
he takes men's money against their will, merely to enable him
to "protect" those infatuated travellers, who feel perfectly able
to protect themselves, or do not appreciate his peculiar system
of protection. He is too sensible a man to make such professions
as these. Furthermore, having taken your money, he leaves you,
as you wish him to do. He does not persist in following you on
the road, against your will; assuming to be your rightful "sovereign,"
on account of the "protection" he affords you. He does not keep
"protecting" you, by commanding you to bow down and serve him;
by requiring you to do this, and forbidding you to do that; by
robbing you of more money as often as he finds it for his interest
or pleasure to do so; and by branding you as a rebel, a traitor,
and an enemy to your country, and shooting you down without mercy
if you dispute his authority, or resist his demands. He is too
much of a gentleman to be guilty of such impostures, and insults,
and villainies as these. In short, he does not, in addition to
robbing you, attempt to make you either his dupe or his slave."
~Lysander Spooner
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