And yet we have what purports, or professes, or is claimed, to be a contract–the Constitution–made eighty years ago, by men who are now all dead, and who never had any power to bind us, but which (it is claimed) has nevertheless bound three generations of men, consisting of many millions, and which (it is claimed) will be binding upon all the millions that are to come; but which nobody ever signed, sealed, delivered, witnessed, or acknowledged; and which few persons, compared with the whole number that are claimed to be bound by it, have ever read, or even seen, or ever will read, or see. Lysander Spooner
About This Quote

The Constitution is a contract. It is a contract that was made by the men who are now dead. It is a contract that was made without the consent of the people who are alive today. The Constitution was written by men who did not sign it or deliver it to anyone, and did not even know that they were making it. The people who are alive today do not agree to abide by this Constitution. The Constitution does not bind anyone alive today, but everyone alive today agrees to abide by the Constitution. The men who wrote this document did not write it with the expectation that it would be followed by future generations. Only the living people agree to follow their example and live by this document.

Source: No Treason: The Constitution Of No Authority

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  1. And yet we have what purports, or professes, or is claimed, to be a contract–the Constitution–made eighty years ago, by men who are now all dead, and who never had any power to bind us, but which (it is claimed) has nevertheless bound three generations...
  2. If there be such a principle as justice, or natural law, it is the principle, or law, that tells us what rights were given to every human being at his birth; what rights are, therefore, inherent in him as a human being, necessarily remain with...
  3. If any man's money can be taken by a so-called government, without his own personal consent, all his other rights are taken with it; for with his money the government can, and will, hire soldiers to stand over him, compel him to submit to its...
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  5. The only idea they have ever manifested as to what is a government of consent, is this--that it is one to which everybody must consent, or be shot.
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