Any government, that is its own judge of, and determines authoritatively for the people, what
are its own powers over the people, is an absolute government of course. It has all the powers
that it chooses to exercise. There is no other --- or at least no more accurate --- definition of
a despotism than this.
I've only just begun, but this is very interesting reading.
And I am especially intrigued by this statement
it is not only the right and duty of juries to judge what are the facts, what is the law, and what was the
moral intent of the accused; but that it is also their right, and their primary and paramount
duty, to judge of the justice of the law, and to hold all laws invalid, that are, in their opinion,
unjust or oppressive, and all persons guiltless in violating, or resisting the execution of, such
laws.