Our Constitution does not profess to have been established simply by the majority, but by 'the people' - the minority as much as the majority.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes that the Constitution represents all people, not just the majority.
Lysander Spooner's quote highlights the foundational principle of democracy that governs the United States: the Constitution is not merely a reflection of the majority's will but is an embodiment of the rights and voices of all citizens, including minorities. It asserts that the legitimacy of the Constitution derives from its commitment to the collective principles of 'the people,' ensuring that every individual's rights are acknowledged and protected, regardless of their numerical strength.
In practice
This quote can be used during discussions on constitutional rights in a classroom setting.
The principle that the majority have a right to rule the minority, practically resolves all government into a mere contest between two bodies of men, as to which of them shall be masters, and which of them slaves; a contest, that-however bloody-can, in the nature of things, never be finally closed, so long as man refuses to be a slave.
For a government to declare a vice to be a crime, and to punish it as such, is an attempt to falsify the very nature of things. It is as absurd as it would be to declare truth to be falsehood, or falsehood truth.
And the men who loan money to governments, so called, for the purpose of enabling the latter to rob, enslave, and murder their people, are among the greatest villains that the world has ever seen. And they as much deserve to be hunted and killed (if they cannot otherwise be got rid of) as any slave traders, robbers, or pirates that ever lived.
A married woman has the same natural right to acquire and hold property, and to make all contracts that she is mentally competent to make reasonably, as has a married man, or any other man.
Slavery, if it can be legalized at all, can be legalized only by positive legislation. Natural law gives it no aid. Custom imparts to it no legal sanction.
Those who deny the right of a jury to protect an individual in resisting an unjust law of the government, deny him all defence whatsoever against oppression.
Our entire life, with our fine moral code and our precious freedom, consists ultimately in accepting ourselves as we are.
The rationale that etiquette should be eschewed because it fosters inequality does not ring true in a society that openly admits to a feverish interest in the comparative status-conveying qualities of sneakers. Manners are available to all, for free.
We are double-edged blades, and every time we whet our virtue the return stroke strops our vice.
Man is to become divine by realizing the divine. Idols or temples, or churches or books, are only the supports, the help of his spiritual childhood.
I would rather sleep in the southern corner of a little country churchyard than in the tomb of the Capulets.
Any rainy summer morning, of course, has the seeds of gloomy alienation sown in. But a rainy summer morning far from home - when your personal clouds don't move but hang - can easily produce the feeling of the world as seen from the grave. This I know.
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