No Treason, Vol. VI.

who pretend to administer it, claim the right to seize men's property, to restrain them of their natural liberty of action, industry, a

ng that they will maintain a government under the Constitution; that they will select, by ballot, the persons to administer it; and that those persons who may

hat they will, by ballot, depute D as their agent, to deprive me of my property, liberty, or life, cannot at all authorize D to do so. He is none the

editing him as such. I am under no obligation to take his word as to who his principals may be, or whether he has any. Bringing no credentials, I have

. Neither do the ballots by which they select their agents, avail any more than does their tacit understanding; for thei

r political agents in any open, authentic manner, or in any manner to make themselves responsible for their acts. Therefore these pretended agents cannot legitimately claim to be really agents. Somebody must be responsible for the acts of these pretended agent

y are personally as much unknown to the agents they select, as they are to others. No pretended agent therefore can ever know by whose ballots he is selected, or consequently who his real principals are. Not knowing who his principals are, he has no right

have no occasion thus to act in secret; or to appoint agents to do a

er than this. The single despot stands out in the face of all men, and says: I am the State: My will is law: I am your master: I take

l they have struck, and perhaps not then. He may guess, beforehand, as to some of his immediate neighbors. But he really k

: We will consent to no Constitution, except such an one as we are neither ashamed nor afraid to sign; and we wi