when enforced against millions; and it is
not to be imagined that juries could be blind to so self-evident a
principle. Taking a man's money without his consent, is also as much
robbery, when it is done by millions of men, acting in concert, and
calling themselves a government, as when it is done by a single
individual, acting on his own responsibility, and calling himself a
highwayman. Neither the numbers engaged in the act, nor the different
characters they assume as a cover for the act, alter the nature of the
act itself.

If the government can take a man's money without his consent, there is
no limit to the additional tyranny it may practise upon him; for, with
his money, it can hire soldiers to stand over him, keep him in
subjection, plunder him at discretion, and kill him if he resists. And
governments always will do this, as they everywhere and always have done
it, except where the Common Law principle has been established. It is
therefore a first principle, a very _sine qua non_ of political freedom,
that a man can be taxed only by his personal consent. And the
establishment of this principle, with _trial by jury_, insures freedom
of course; because: 1. No man would pay his money unless he had first
contracted for such a government as he was willing to support; and, 2.
Unless the government then kept itself within the terms of its contract,
juries would not enforce the payment of the tax. Besides, the agreement
to be taxed would probably be entered into but for a year at a time. If,
in that year, the government proved itself either inefficient or
tyrannical, to any serious degree, the contract would not be renewed.
The dissatisfied parties, if sufficiently numerous for a new
organization, would form themselves into a separate association for
mutual protection. If not sufficiently numerous for that purpose, those
who were conscientious would forego all governmental protection, rather
than contribute to the support of a government which they deemed unjust.

All legitimate government is a mutual insurance company, voluntarily
agreed upon by the parties to it, for the protection of their rights
against wrong-doers. In its voluntary character it is precisely similar
to an association for mutual protection against fire or shipwreck.
Before a man will join an association for these latter purposes, and pay
the premium for being insured, he will, if he be a man of sense, look at
the articles of the association; see what