The secret ballot makes a secret government; and a secret government is a secret band of robbers and murderers.
Interpretation
The quote criticizes the concept of secret voting by equating it to a hidden and corrupt government.
Lysander Spooner argues that the practice of using secret ballots in elections leads to the establishment of a government that operates without accountability and transparency. This, he suggests, results in a form of governance that can engage in harmful and criminal activities, as it lacks vigilance from the populace due to its obscured operations.
In practice
In a political speech discussing the importance of transparency in democratic processes.
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.
A man who is not interested in politics is not doing his patriotic duty toward maintaining the constitution of the United States.
It has been said that the people of this country are deeply interested in the humanitarian and philanthropic considerations involved in [the Eastern Question]. All must appreciate such feelings. But I am mistaken if there be not a yet deeper sentiment on the part of the people of this country, one with which I cannot doubt your lordships will ever sympathise, and that is - the determination to maintain the Empire of England.
It is a fine game to play - the game of politics - and it is well worth waiting for a good hand before really plunging.
The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.
My house was bugged. They couldn't find any information on me being a subversive because I happen to love America; I just don't like some of the things the government is doing.
I think it is important to ask ourselves as citizens, not as Democrats attacking the administration, but as citizens, whether a world power can really provide global leadership on the basis of fear and anxiety?
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.